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SICILY :" 



A PILGRIMAGE. 



' Alas for Sicily! rude fragments now 
Lie scattered where the shapely column stood. 
Her palaces are dust. In all her streets 
The voice of singing and the sprightly chord 
Are silent. Revelry and dance and show 
Suffer a syncope and solemn pause; 
While God performs upon the trembling stage 
Of his own works, his dreadful part alone." 



BY HENRY T. TITCKERMAN, 

author of "the italian sketch book," "thoughts on the poets," 

"artist life," "characteristics of literature, 

" the optimist," etc. 




NEW YORK: 
GEORGE P. PUTNAM, 10 PARK PLACE. 



1852. 



PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. 



The celebrated remark of Dr. Johnson respecting the 
Hebrides is singularly applicable to Sicily. The an- 
tiquities of the island are eminently worthy of obser- 
vation ; but the inconveniences attending a visit to 
them are such as to suggest, even in the mind of the 
enthusiastic traveller, frequent doubts whether the 
gratification thus afforded is not more than counter- 
balanced by the discomfort consequently incurred. 
The scenery, too, is peculiar, and often unsurpassed 
for beauty and picturesque effect ; yet it is only at 
certain periods that the weather is such as to do jus- 
tice to its characteristic charms. The long and rigid 
quarantines to which the voyager is liable, the want 
of commodious inns, and the absence of carriage-roads 
to some of the most interesting localities, are also es- 
sential drawbacks to the pleasure of the tourist, espe- 



viii PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. 

cially if he be fresh from the superior facilities of the 
continent. To one who sympathizes warmly with his 
race, there are, in addition, many painful associations 
constantly awakened by the existent poverty and deg- 
radation of the Sicilians, but ill-calculated to cheer his 
sojourn. If these considerations, however, are suffi- 
cient to deter the unadventurous from exploring this 
remarkable island, they afford no inconsiderable mo- 
tive to one whom circumstances have lured within its 
fertile precincts, to attempt to convey an idea to oth- 
ers of what there has interested his own mind. It is 
with such a view that the following pages were writ- 
ten. The form in which these descriptions and 
thoughts, suggested by a tour in Sicily, are presented, 
was adopted for the purpose of avoiding that egotisti- 
cal tone from which it is almost impossible to escape 
in a formal journal, as well as to obviate the necessity 
of dwelling upon those unimportant details and cir- 
cumstances which are common to every tour in Eu- 
rope, and therefore too familiar to be interesting. 






CONTENTS. 



Preface, 

The Pilgrims, . 

The Quarantine, . 

Journey to Catania, . 

Biscari, .... 

Vincenzo Bellini, ; 

A Walk in Catania, . 

Syracuse, . 

Journey to Palermo, . 

The Capital, 

The Novitiate, 

Vittorio, . 

Discussion, 

An Episode, 

The Past and Present, 

Segesta and Selinunteum, 

SCIACCA, .... 

Agrigentum, 
The Reunion, 



PAGE 

v 

11 

. 19 

21 

. 38 

45 

. 54 

62 

. 12 

82 

. 94 

105 

. 121 

130 

. 139 

149 

. 162 

169 

. US 



€ty $ ilgrtittH. 



Yet to the relics of thy splendor past 

Shall pilgrims pensive, but unwearied, throng. 

Childe Harold. 

THERE is, perhaps, no approach to the Old World more 
impressive to the transatlantic voyager than the Straits 
of Gibraltar. The remarkable promontory which rises ab- 
ruptly before him is calculated to interest his mind, wearied 
with the monotony of sea-life, not less as an object of great 
natural curiosity than from the historical circumstances with 
which it is associated. Anciently deemed the boundary of 
the world, it was fabled, that at this point Europe and Africa 
were united, until riven asunder by Hercules. Forming the 
south-western extremity of Andalusia, and long occupied as a 
Moorish fortress, it awakens the many romantic impressions 
which embalm the history of Spain ; constituting, as it were, 
the gate of the Mediterranean, the comer from the New 
World cannot pass its lofty and venerable form without feel- 
ing that he has left the ocean whose waters lave his native 
shore, and entered a sea hallowed by the annals of antiquity, 
and renowned for scenes of southern luxuriance and beauty. 
It was on a fine autumn night, that an American ship, 
propelled by a regular but gentle breeze, glided through this 



12 SICILY. 

celebrated channel. The newly-risen moon seemed to hang 
just above the horizon, with that magnified and brilliant as- 
pect which the clearness of the atmosphere in these climates 
occasions. Her soothing light illuminated the Spanish coast, 
glittered on the low crests of the waves, and fell at intervals 
upon the prominent points of the majestic rock. So quiet 
was the night, that the ripple of the water, as if parted before 
the prow of the vessel, sounded hoarsely, and the occasional 
orders of the captain, although uttered in an ordinary tone, 
came with a startling distinctness to the ear. Upon the 
quarter-deck stood two spectators of the scene, apparently ab- 
sorbed in regarding its novel features, or yielding to the 
thoughts it had suggested. The elder was a man somewhat 
beyond the prime of life, with one of those countenances 
equally indicative of shrewdness and benevolence, so fre- 
quently encountered in America, and, without boasting any 
very striking lineament, convey the idea of intelligence, but 
not necessarily of genius, and good feeling without ardor. 
Beside him, her arm within his, and her eyes turned in the 
same direction, stood a girl of graceful figure and medium 
height. Her face was not strictly beautiful, if such a term 
is only applicable to great regularity of profile ; but to those, 
who, abjuring this conventional ordeal of female loveliness, re- 
gard beauty as chiefly dependent on expression, her counte- 
nance alone would excite immediate interest. She was one 
of those beings who vindicate the attractiveness of her sex 
beyond the most perfect models of beauty ; whose eye, smile, 
and manner are so instantly and perfectly inspired by the 
spirit within them, that criticism is disarmed, standards of 
the beautiful annihilated, and we are only sensible of being 
interested, without precisely knowing how or why. Perhaps 
the secret lies in the very depths of character. Ingenuous- 
ness and enthusiasm were the active elements of her nature, 



THE PILGRIMS. 13 

and through their influence it was that a spirit of beauty lived 
in her glance, voice, and manner, more winning than the finest 
outline or the richest tint. It was the beauty of expression, 
combined with the graces of youth and rare natural gifts — 
of candid, free, and earnest expression, and, therefore, not to 
be described any more than any other charm, which, like 
music, addresses at once both soul and sense. 

The father of Isabel Otley began life with a sensitiveness 
of temperament and depth of feeling which ill fitted him for 
the constant contact of worldly influences which scenes of 
traffic unavoidably engender. Yet at the period when it be- 
came necessary for him to fix upon an occupation, the only 
interest his friends were able to exert in his behalf lay in the 
channels of trade, and soon after arriving at manhood, he 
found himself fairly embarked in mercantile pursuits, in the 
commercial emporium of the New World. His attention and 
probity won him universal respect and confidence, but the 
effect of uncongenial occupation was to give to his manner a 
reserve utterly foreign to his nature, which unhappily pre- 
vented his associates from discerning many of the most esti- 
mable qualities of his character. A twelve month's residence 
in the south of Europe during his youth had, in no small 
degree, confirmed his natural aversion to the path of life in 
which circumstances had placed him ; but soon after he had 
entered upon it, too far to retreat with convenience, a happier 
agency mingled with and neutralized the unpromising hues 
of his destiny. In the course of business it became necessary 
for him to visit Virginia. While there, making one of those 
brief but pleasant sojourns at the house of a wealthy planter 
which the frank hospitality of the south renders so delightful 
to the stranger, he was attacked by a fever. A protracted 
convalescence ensued, during which the amplest opportunity 
was afforded him of realizing the sympathy of taste and feel- 



14 SICILY. 

ing existing between his host's only daughter and himself. 
Who can wonder that his heart sprang to meet the boon of 
love with all its long-repressed energy 1 Frederick Otley left 
the mansion of his friend in a mood altogether new and de- 
lightful. An affection had been born in his bosom which 
gave new interest to existence and constant impulse to action. 
In a few months life had assumed a far happier aspect ; for 
there were hours in every passing day, and whole weeks in 
every summer, when he was at liberty to enjoy nature, books, 
and society, with a being whose sympathies were all his own. 
Laboring with renewed assiduity, he was enabled, in the 
course of a few years, to effect the object for which he had 
long toiled, and retire with his wife and daughter from the 
cares of business, and the bustle of the metropolis, to her 
paternal home, made solitary long before by the death of its 
venerable proprietor. In this beautiful retreat were passed 
the three happiest years of his life — too tranquil and blessed, 
it would seem, to continue, for its peaceful and happy tenor 
was suddenly and awfully interrupted by the death of her 
who was at once its hope and inspiration. For a short time 
the broken spirit of the mourner appeared to derive consola- 
tion from the scenes once familiar with her presence, but in 
the end they seemed to agonize rather than soothe. The old 
elms about the church-yard, as they waved in the twilight, no 
longer whispered to his saddened fancy that her spirit was 
near and conscious of his devoted grief, but moaned a melan- 
choly echo to his own despairing thoughts. The favorite 
walk, instead of reminding him that she had been, awakened 
only the gloomy conviction that she was not. It was then 
that he determined to follow the oft-repeated advice of his 
kindred, and go abroad. Leaving his daughter in the care 
of her aunt, he departed on his lonely travels, not to forget 
his bereavement in the pursuit of pleasure, or veil it in the 



THE PILGRIMS. 15 

excitement of novelty, but to interest, if possible, his mind, 
now torpid from inaction and shadowed by woe. The letters 
of Otley, dated from different parts of the continent, consti- 
tuted, for several years, one of the chief pleasures of the re- 
tired family. Through them his daughter learned to esti- 
mate the mind and principles of her father, and, combined 
with her childish recollections of him, they served to cherish 
in her breast a sentiment of filial love, as profound as it was 
fervent. Often in these epistles had he spoken of returning, 
but the intention was always contravened by some new plan 
or unexpected circumstance. Indeed, the attraction of Euro- 
pean life is generally enhanced by a return to it, after an 
interval spent in other scenes. It is on revisiting southern 
Europe especially that an American is best prepared justly 
to estimate and duly to feel all that is peculiar in the two 
hemispheres. The scene before him no longer excites by its 
novelty. He is no longer a bewildered stranger. With a 
more chastened but deeper interest, he regards the objects 
around him. With a calmer and more intelligent patriotism, 
he recalls the characteristics of his native land. The foreign 
insignia which meets his view has something of a well-known 
aspect ; and the eager gaze of curiosity is exchanged for the 
quiet glance of recognition. Annoyances which he once 
strongly deprecated now provoke a smile, for old acquaint- 
ance has softened them ; and happy influences wake a thrill 
of delight, for they are symbols of past pleasure, as well as 
pledges of future enjoyment. The landscape is arrayed in 
new charms, the church breathes a dearer solemnity, the pic- 
ture glows with a brighter expressiveness, for often, since he 
saw them last, has memory brooded over their quiet spells, 
amid the noisy activity of his distant country. The favorite 
aria rises with a richer cadence, the chime of the campanile 
steals upon the night-breeze with a holier music, and the soft 



16 SICILY. 

accents of the south seem thrice beautiful; for, since last 
heard, they have again and again been borne, on the wings of 
fancy, across the trackless deep to his delighted ear. Ab- 
sence has endeared what taste holds sacred in the Old 
World, while a return to the bracing air of a young republic 
has retaught the inestimable value of the principles which 
have fled thither for nurture, from the clogged and heavy at- 
mosphere of the old monarchies. In truth, no ideas can be 
more false than many of those which it requires at least one 
sojourn of an American in Europe to correct. There is a 
vague notion prevalent among the untravelled, that abroad 
there are many and peculiar means of enjoyment. In one 
sense this is true ; but is it enough borne in mind, that the 
only worthy pleasures peculiar to Europe are those of taste, 
and that to enjoy these a certain preparedness is requisite ? 
The truth is, the legitimate gratifications of southern Europe 
are eminently meditative. They are alike incompatible with 
a spirit of restless ambition or gainful passion. They address 
themselves to the imaginative and enthusiastic, to the con- 
templative and intellectual ; to those who believe there is a 
greater good than worldly success, a richer boon than the dis- 
tinctions of office ; to those who believe that the process of 
improvement does not consist wholly in action ; to those who 
do not measure individual advancement merely by the direct 
results of intellect ; to those who have faith in the refining 
influences of art and nature, and a life of " meek self-content," 
passed in the free and independent exercise of thought, im- 
agination, and love ; and who, while they acknowledge fealty 
to the demands of active duty, recognize the truth, that the 
mind, like the earth, is enriched by lying fallow, and that a 
tranquil life, if permitted by an individual's destiny, may be 
rendered more truly profitable than one passed in the most 
successful and renowned course of active usefulness. In such 



THE PILGRIMS. 17 

considerations lay the spell which prolonged the exile of 
Otley. 

In the meantime Isabel had reaped the advantages of a 
faithful private education and occasional visits to the princi- 
pal cities of her country, and found herself, on her eighteenth 
birthday, happily domesticated in the home of her childhood, 
with the relatives who had fulfilled towards her the duties of 
parents. At this time she unfolded to her uncle the long- 
cherished design of seeking and surprising her father in 
Europe. He heard the proposal with surprise, but could not 
long withhold his consent, and as Otley 's last letter expressed 
an intention of making the tour of Sicily, it was soon deter- 
mined that they should take advantage of an excellent op- 
portunity which presented itself, and sail directly for that 
island. In assenting to the wishes of Isabel, to whom he was 
strongly attached, her uncle, who had travelled extensively in 
early life, was influenced rather by a conviction that the tour 
would benefit her mind and health than from any deep sym- 
pathy in her views. Clifford Frazier was a great admirer of 
the institutions and manners of his country, and a thorough 
utilitarian. Isabel Otley was an ardent and gifted idealist. 
In her character were combined earnest and affectionate feel- 
ing, with singular strength and independence of mind. tt There 
are natures which seem, by virtue of some innate principle, to 
preserve, almost miraculously, their original beauty and fresh- 
ness." Thus was it with her. She possessed that depth of 
sentiment, that earnest sympathy with what is deep in the 
experience of the heart, and what is exalted in the aspirations 
of the soul, which gives to the gifts and graces of female 
character an angelic semblance. She had not learned to re- 
pose upon a mere conventional philosophy. The blighting 
breath of artificial life had not crept like a frost over the fair 
and flowery domain of her truthful spirit. Powers of no or- 



18 SICILY. 

dinary strength and captivation were enshrined in an inner 
and holy light, which chastened and rendered starlike the 
native brilliancy of her mind, and subdued to a deeper flow 
the earnest current of her feelings. 






. 



$!* dUratttto. 



The doing evil to avoid an evil 

Cannot be good. Wallbnstbin. 

ON a lovely afternoon they approached the harbor of Mes- 
sina. The scene was surpassingly beautiful as the sun 
descended. On the one side rose the high hills of Calabria, 
and on the other the noble range of the Sicilian mountains. 
The broadly undulating shapes of the latter were clothed 
with the vivid verdure of the lemon and orange trees, and the 
darker evergreen of the olive. On their tops, at intervals, 
volumes of pearly mist reposed, and elsewhere the edge of 
their summits was marked with the distinctness of a chiselled 
line upon the clear back-ground of the horizon. The blue 
smoke of the coal-pits above wreathed itself peacefully along 
the green slopes, and up into the bright sky. Clusters of 
white habitations were planted here and there in the midst 
of the verdant shrubbery, some of them seeming to hang 
from an impending cliff. At a short distance from these 
groups of habitations rose the square white towers of the 
churches, pointing from the greensward to the serene heaven 
above, their ancient hue contrasting finely with the freshness 
of the beautiful temple of nature amid which they were 



20 SICILY. 

reared. Nearer the shore, broad lines of sandy earth indi- 
cated the track of some mountain-torrent, and the many and 
rich tints of the withered vineyards reflected, in brilliant 
masses, the lateral rays of the setting sun. To give life to 
the view, the figure of a passing pedestrian occasionally flit- 
ted across the beach, and a knot of fishermen appeared near 
the line of blue water, watching the progress of the vessel. 
The clear chime of the Ave Maria stole softly from the val- 
leys. All was peaceful, rich, and lovely as the land of promise ; 
and when the sound of the vesper-bell thus floated over the 
sea, it seemed to Isabel as if Nature was whispering a call to 
her children from one of the fairest of her sanctuaries, to lure 
them to join in her evening prayer. 

Before midnight the ship was safely moored on that side 
of the port of Messina appropriated to vessels in quarantine, 
and the morning light revealed yet another prospect of sin- 
gular beauty. At the foot of the picturesque range of moun- 
tains, a part of which they had so attentively viewed the 
previous evening, appeared the city, the lofty dome of its 
cathedral, and the finely-wrought towers of the church of St. 
Gregorio rising conspicuously among the dwellings. Half- 
way up the hills, behind the town, stand two old forts, one 
of which rises from a grassy esplanade in admirable keeping 
with its massive gray walls, and between these fortifications 
is reared the venerable monastery, with its dark rugged tower, 
in which Richard Coeur de Lion took refuge on his way to 
the Holy Land. At the water's edge appears the Marina, 
lined with spacious buildings ; and here and there, half hid- 
den by the shipping at the quay, groups might be seen scat- 
tered along this wide promenade, and vehicles moving to and 
fro in rapid succession. Yet, delightful as was the landscape, 
Isabel and her uncle would gladly have abandoned their 
favorable position, and joined those who constituted the 



THE QUARANTINE. 21 

moving figures of the panorama — for before their mental 
vision was the less cheering prospect of a Sicilian quarantine. 
Not without grateful emotions, however, did Isabel turn to 
the lovely picture, which, during many days of anxiety and 
weariness, was thus spread out before them. Nature ! how 
like a kind mother thou art ! when thy wayward children 
are so ingenious in devising methods of mutual torment, with 
what a quiet and constant tenderness dost thou minister to 
their pleasure ! How often did Isabel forget the ennui of 
confinement, and lose, in bright imaginings, all sense of her 
restricted condition in perusing the landscape before her. She 
beheld it in every variety of aspect ; at sunrise, and in the 
mellow light of evening, when clouds rested over it as a cano- 
py, and when lit up into cheerfulness by the noonday glare. 
She saw it when rendered still more enchanting by the moon- 
beams, and watched the shadows of night as they stole over 
it, till naught but the dark forms of the mountains and the 
flickering lamps of the town were visible. She beheld it 
shrouded in the gloom of the storm and spanned by the 
glowing rainbow. 

" Of life's annoyances," said Frazier, "few are more severe 
than a Sicilian quarantine. A man of sense can always de- 
rive consolation, when suffering from the regulations of 
government, if he is able to perceive the utility of their en- 
forcement. It is gratifying, when our convenience is invaded 
by the operation of law, to feel there is reason for our dis- 
comfort, that we are making an appropriate sacrifice to the 
general good. Such a consideration is sufficient to still the 
voice of complaint in every reflecting bosom. It is the irra- 
tional and indiscriminate course pursued here which renders 
the quarantine so vexatious. The slightest rumor, the most 
unauthenticated report, or the veriest whim, is deemed suffi- 
cient ground for sending away ships of every nation, or con- 



22 SICILY. 

signing them to an indefinite suspension of intercourse. It is 
now doubtful whether the time assigned will behold us at 
liberty ; and the healthiness of the place of our embarkation, 
and the unquestionable validity of our bill of health, and the 
excellent condition of all on board, will not weigh a feather 
in the scale. The low damp chambers of the lazzaretto are 
quite calculated to induce sickness, while the fastidious are 
in no degree likely to be cheered by the prospect of being 
buried, { unknelled and uncoflined,' in a hastily-dug pit, and 
covered with quick-lime." 

Surrounded by vessels of every name and nation, they 
eagerly looked for the arrival of Christmas, the period desig- 
nated for their landing. Sometimes, attended by a guard, 
they perambulated the yard of the lazzaretto, or conversed 
with acquaintances through a high railing. On these occa- 
sions it was sometimes their fortune to behold the letters 
they had carefully prepared for distant friends, cut uncere- 
moniously, bathed in vinegar and smoked in sulphur, till all 
their decent aspect was destroyed, and half their contents 
obliterated. Another time they heard vague reports that 
their durance would be prolonged, and returned to the nar- 
row precincts of the vessel in a state of the most unenviable 
suspense. Sometimes they amused themselves in watching 
the fish and sea-nettles in the clear tide around, and at others 
in tracing, with a spy-glass, some distant line of the prospect, 
or endeavoring to discern the signal of an approaching ship. 
At night the monotonous cheering of the guards, as they vo- 
ciferously passed the watch-word from vessel to vessel, or the 
twang of an antiquated violin, with which some neighbor be- 
guiled the hours, disturbed their slumbers. 

The festive day drew nigh, on the eve of which the Ital- 
ians feast upon eels, and the morning of which the strangers 
fondly hoped would shine upon their landing. Ere then they 



THE QUARANTINE. 23 

received notice, that, until farther orders, they could not be 
admitted to pratique. Such is a quarantine in Sicily. Brib- 
ing will evade almost any of the legal penalties of the coun- 
try, but the sanitary laws are enforced with a rigidness wor- 
thy of more important objects connected with the general 
welfare. The joyous anniversary arrived. Isabel pictured 
its celebration across the wide waters in the circle of her 
friends. She saw, in fancy, the glad meeting about the fire- 
side j she heard well-known voices interchange the gratula- 
tions of the season ; she beheld dear forms moving up the 
aisle her infant feet had trod ; she felt the glow of devotion 
stirred by the preacher's earnest description of His meekness 
and self-sacrifice, who centuries past, was born in Bethlehem. 
She saw her kindred gather around the festive board, and 
caught the tone of loved voices breathing fond hopes for her 
welfare. She cared not to trace the picture farther, for she 
had taken the blessed thought to her heart, that she was re- 
membered. 

For two days the wind had been free and strong, and on 
this night it increased to a gale. The moon alternately shone 
clearly forth, and illuminated the edges of an intervening 
cloud, sending down a pale and melancholy light. In an 
hour it blew a hurricane ; one of those sudden storms, pecu- 
liar to the Mediterranean, whose desolate bowlings and sud- 
den gusts drown all other sounds. Suddenly, as they stood 
upon the quarter-deck, a noise like the snapping of metal-bars 
was audible, and one of the many craft around shot from 
among the vessels, and dashed forth steadily and with a 
startling rapidity, as if under a press of canvass. Her masts 
and dark tracery were relieved against the half-clear, half- 
sullen atmosphere. All was hushed, save the deep solemn 
roar of the gale. She seemed not a thing subject to human 
government, and as she silently passed onward, and was lost 



24 SICILY. 

to sight in the gloom, the legends she had read of spectre 
ships came forcibly to the mind of Isabel. A few moments 
passed, and the whole fleet beside them broke their moorings. 
Then, as the vessels were thrown together, and spars and 
cordage intermingled, the crash of yards, the bursting of 
ropes, the grating of chains, the voices of command, and the 
exclamations of fear, uttered in Italian, German, and Eng- 
lish, mingled with the unceasing roar of the tempest. Now 
and then it lulled, only to be renewed with greater violence. 
The iron rings imbedded in the old wall of the lazzaretto, 
which held the flotilla, had burst asunder, and thus caused 
the accident. It was startling to see the fleet which had sur- 
rounded them with a forest of masts, as it were by magic, in 
the space of a few moments, all at once depart. It was thril- 
ling to look over the bulwarks, and behold the broad bay 
covered with foam, and ^perfectly solitary ! Most of the ves- 
sels were thrown on a strip of land not far distant, and all 
of them, in some degree, damaged. Those which had nearly 
performed the required quarantine, being brought in contact 
with the non-admitted vessels, were declared sfratto (ex- 
pelled). There was enough of destruction around to enable 
Isabel to realize the sufferings of those exposed to the un- 
mitigated fury of the storm. At every new onset of the in- 
visible but resistless power, she seemed to see the surges 
whelming some hapless bark, and feel the shudder which fol- 
lows the first deep crash of the careening fabric. In the 
pauses of the storm, she thought her ear caught the quickly 
whispered prayer, and on its rising whirl, the last agonizing 
cry seemed to come. The next day brought them accounts 
of the disasters of the night. " If all this damage," observed 
Frazier, a had been incurred in an Atlantic port, it would be 
instantly repaired by government or individuals. All the 
losses are attributable to the insecurity of the fastenings. A 



THE QUARANTINE. 25 

Sicilian quarantine exposes a man to the combined evils of 
an abridgment of liberty, discomfort, suspense, and loss." 
During this and many other of her uncle's complaining mo- 
ments, Isabel was quietly regarding the scene around her, 
now clothed with renewed beauty, and meditating upon the 
prospect of that re-union, the hope of which had brought her 
thither. When an important object is ever present to the 
mind, lesser evils vanish ; and so much of uncertainty hung 
over the enterprise of the fair pilgrim, that she scarcely knew 
what circumstances were best adapted to promote it, and 
therefore was more resigned to the course of events. Her 
uncle, buoyed by no such faith or expectancy, felt more keenly 
the inconveniences of the pilgrimage. 

There are few situations, however, of unalleviated dis- 
comfort, and accordingly it was not long before an agreeable 
circumstance enlivened the monotony of their durance. On 
board the adjoining vessel they had frequently observed a 
young man, of graceful mien, and handsome, intelligent fea- 
tures, apparently the only passenger ; and, on one occasion, 
when they were visited by some friends from shore, he was 
introduced to their acquaintance. Thenceforth their inter- 
course was constant and interesting. Count Vittorio was a 
native of Sicily, and had just returned from a visit to one of 
the Italian cities. To the engaging manners and enthusiasm 
of the South, he united talents of rare native power, greatly 
improved by study and travel. His society proved invalua- 
ble to the strangers, and he was no less delighted to hold 
communion with two such pleasing representatives of a coun- 
try in whose institutions he felt deeply interested. Frazier 
was happy to find so attentive an auditor, and never became 
weary of expatiating on the political advantages and moral 
pre-eminence of his native land ; while Isabel found still 
greater pleasure in the vivid descriptions the count eloquently 

2 



26 SICILY. 

furnished of the arts, literature, and antiquities of the classic 
region with which he was so familiar. In such conversations, 
many hours of the tedious day were beguiled of their weari- 
ness. The acquaintance thus formed, soon ripened into mu- 
tual confidence ; and it was arranged that they should pro- 
ceed in company through the island. Their hopes were soon 
unexpectedly gratified by receiving, on a delightful evening, 
permission to land. How eagerly did they spring from tho 
boat's prow upon the beach, and hasten to the yard of the 
Health-office ! A few moments of ceremony sufficed ; the 
little iron gate was thrown open, and they gladly hurried 
through, like emancipated prisoners. 






%mmn in (Mania. 



Travel in the younger sort is the part of education ; in the eider, the part of ex- 
perience. — Lord Bacon. 

IT was noon before the travellers left Messina. On emerg- 
ing from the suburbs into the open country, while the 
cheerful sunlight was around them, showers were visible in 
the distance. There is something exhilarating, in the high- 
est degree, in the propitious commencement of a journey. 
Never till this moment did it seem to Isabel that her pil- 
grimage had actually begun ; and as she cast her eyes over 
the blue waters to the pretty town upon the Calabrian coast, 
— that Rhegium whither St. Paul repaired after his ship- 
wreck, now enveloped in a transparent mist, and glanced at 
the bright leaves of the orange-trees near by, a pleasing con- 
fidence took possession of her mind, which seemed the happy 
assurance of success. The road displayed at every turn the 
most delightful scenery. On the one side stretched the sea ; on 
the other rose the mountains. Etna, covered with a snowy 
drapery, reared itself above them ; and olive plantations lay 
immediately beneath their gaze. Sometimes they crossed a 
fiumare — the broad bed of a mountain torrent covered with 
stones, and extending from the midst of the hills down to 



28 SICILY. 

the shore. These long and stony tracks, shooting through 
the trees and herbage, with their barren and stern aspect, are 
no ordinary emblems of destruction. The water, collected 
in some natural basin in the mountains, rushes impetuously 
down, sweeping everything before it, and leaving a long line 
of rocks and earth to mark its devastating course. It is but 
a few years since this carriage road was completed, and the 
part of it which our party were now traversing gives ample 
evidence of the labor it cost. In many places lofty hills have 
been excavated, and massive ranges of rock cut through. 
The rough sides thus presented to view display the various 
oxydes which constitute the soil. Some of these cliffs, when 
moistened by a recent rain, indicate, in bright tints, the dif- 
ferent strata of which they are composed, and as one hurries 
by them, afford a striking evidence of the geological richness 
of the island. 

Night fell before they reached the village destined for 
their quarters. It consisted of two long rows of stone 
houses, separated by a muddy street, so narrow as scarcely to 
permit the passage of a carriage. As they entered, its ap- 
pearance struck Isabel, whose fancy contrasted it with the 
thriving and cheerful villages of her own country, as the most 
dreary assemblage of human dwellings she had ever seen. 
Here and there a light glimmered from one of the low doors, 
or an old crone, in ragged habiliments, raised a torch above 
her head, and peered curiously at the rumbling vehicle. The 
dogs of the place, lank, wretched curs, rushed forth and barked 
at the horses. All else was still and gloomy. Isabel drew 
her cloak about her and descended at the locanda, in a mood 
quite the reverse of that which had marked the early part of 
her ride. Woe to the fastidious traveller who has been only 
accustomed to the delightful accommodations of an English 
inn, when first he enters a Sicilian locanda ! All the visions 



JOURNEY TO CATANIA. 29 

of comfort which have lightened the weariness of his eve- 
ning's travel are dissipated in a moment. He ascends a long 
and steep flight of stone steps, and enters a cold chamber, in 
which are a few chairs and an old table. At one end of the 
room are two or three alcoves, containing iron bedsteads, and 
divided from the apartment by dingy curtains. A few time- 
stained pictures hang about the wall. The hostess appears, 
bearing a brazier filled with ignited charcoal, which she places 
under the table. By the light of a lamp of ancient form she 
spreads the meagre repast ; after which you are at liberty to 
retire, and dream, if you can, of a blazing fire, a corpulent 
host, and excellent cheer. The novelty of the scene was 
amusing to Isabel, and sweet slumbers soon made her forget 
its forbidding features. 

Early the next morning their journey was resumed. The 
country now presented an appearance of still greater fertility. 
Plains, covered with fields of flax and lupens, extensive vine- 
yards, now denuded of their foliage, but planted in a soil of 
the finest loam, and mulberry-trees, of the most fantastic 
shapes, diversified the face of the country. As the dawn ad- 
vanced, every object acquired a fresher tint, and at the in- 
stance of Isabel they all left the carriage to enjoy the scene 
more freely. 

" I have heard much of the deceptiveness of apparent dis- 
tances," said Isabel, " but this strikes me as the most re- 
markable I ever knew. Are you quite sure, uncle, that we are 
eight miles from yonder snow ?" pointing to the summit of 
Etna, which was seemingly but a short distance on their right. 

" It is at least as far off as that," he replied, tt although 
we feel so keenly the cold air it engenders. And mark, Isa- 
bel, what a contrast is before us. In this field the laborers 
are mowing a fine crop of green barley, which looks as well 
as the grass of our meadows in June ; while beside us, the 



30 SICILY. 

sides of the mountain are deeply covered with snow. We 
seem literally walking between summer and winter." 

At this moment the dark cloud which hung along the 
eastern horizon became fringed with hues of gold ; the vege- 
tation around assumed more vivid tints ; the villages scat- 
tered over the broad sides of Etna, seemed to smile in the 
growing light, and directly above the cold, hoary summit of 
the volcano, a single star gleamed forth from the pale, azure sky. 

" How glorious !" exclaimed Isabel ; " what sacrifices is 
not a scene like this worth !" 

" It reminds me," said the count, " of that noble produc- 
tion of Coleridge — the hymn in the vale of Chamouni: — 

1 Hast thou a charm to stay the morning star 
In his swift course % so long he seems to pause 
On thy bald awful head, sovran Blanc !' 



And then the invocation which the view inspires, how true 
and expressive ! — 



{ Awake, my soul ! not only passive praise 
Thou owest ! not alone these swelling tears, 
Mute thanks, and secret ecstasy ! Awake, 
Voice of sweet song ! awake, my heart, awake ! 
Green vales and icy cliffs — all join my hymn.' " 






Subdued, and at the same time exalted by the presence 
of Nature in a new form, Isabel yielded her spirit to the in- 
fluences of the quiet hour and impressive scene, and wandered 
in silent delight, till her uncle's voice calling her to re-enter 
the carriage, awakened her from her day-dream. 

In an hour they drew up before the public house of 
Giarra. As they entered this town, the first of its rank 
which Isabel had seen, she noted the objects around with 
curiosity. Here were piles of cauliflowers exposed for sale, 



JO URNE Y TO OA TAN I A. 3 1 

there long strings of maccaroni suspended upon cane-poles to 
dry ; here were a group of villagers from the mountain feed- 
ing their mules, and on the sunny side of the street a knot 
of women plying the distaff. It was soon determined to im- 
prove the fine weather, and make an excursion upon the side 
of Etna, which rose so invitingly before them. Mules were 
procured, and they commenced ascending a very rugged ra- 
vine, choked up with black lava-stones. After nearly two 
hours of very fatiguing ascent, they stopped at a cottage to 
rest. It was built of lava, and fronted by a little yard, in 
which its mistress was sitting in the sun, spinning flax. She 
was nearly a hundred years of age. Her face was strongly 
marked, and brought forcibly to Frazier's mind some of the 
Dutch portraits he had seen in the collections of Italy, where 
the painter's aim seems to -have been to copy nature with a 
fidelity which betrayed all the painful lineaments of age. 
Deep furrows indented her dark visage, and a tuft of white 
hair protruded from beneath the hood that enveloped her 
head. A large black pig, and several fowls, were straying 
about the yard, and constituted the chief of the old woman's 
substance. She invited them to enter her cottage. One 
room answered all the purposes of the family. Here were 
two beds, an old loom, a wax figure of the virgin and child, 
and, in one corner, a huge butt of sour wine. 

" You see how these people live," said the count ; " this 
hut, built of the fatal material which has destroyed so many 
human beings, has been inhabited for more than fifty years 
by this poor creature. To visit the nearest village, and bend 
at the altar of the old church, to bask in the sun in winter, 
and sit in the shade in summer, to eat her small allowance 
of roasted chestnuts, and drink her daily pitcher of thin wine 
— this is her life ; she knows no other, and perhaps can con- 
ceive of no better." 



32 SICILY. 

The old woman's daughter now made her appearance, 
robed in black, with a white mantilla thrown over her head, 
and a crucifix and beads suspended from her neck. She was 
what is called in Sicily, a nun of the house, that is, a woman 
who has taken vows of celibacy, and to perform certain acts 
of ceremony and penance, but is not obliged to immure her- 
self in a religious asylum. The nun busied herself in pre- 
paring the food which Vittorio had ordered from one of the 
little villages through which they had passed, occasionally 
glancing, with deep interest, at the fair stranger and her com- 
panions. After their repast, the son, a bright and active 
stripling, guided them on their way. They soon arrived at 
a clump of fine old chestnut trees, whose gnarled and far- 
spreading branches betokened sylvan antiquities of no ordi- 
nary worth. Five of these treefc surrounding a wide space, 
according to tradition, are but the dissevered trunk of one 
huge tree, and therefore called the tree of the hundred horses, 
because it is said that that number of steeds could make the 
circuit of the hollow trunk. Another and more probable 
reason for the appellation is, that the tree, in its flourishing 
days, could shelter a hundred mounted horsemen. Frazier 
was a connoisseur in forest trees, and, while he did not im- 
plicitly credit this marvellous tale, yet dwelt with strong in 
terest upon the rough features of these woodland patriarchs. 
The agile peasant ran up into the branches of the old chest 
nuts, like a monkey, ever and anon thrusting his head from 
some hollow, and smiling upon the travellers. He wore a 
long cap of white cotton, and an old velvet jerkin, and as he 
thus appeared, peering from some hole in the massive 
branches, Isabel wished there had been time to sketch the 
curious picture which the contrast produced. But the sun 
was fast descending, and they turned their faces towards the 
town below. Then burst upon their sight one of the richest 



JOURNEY TO CATANIA. 33 

and most variegated landscapes it had ever been the lot of 
either to witness. The broad plains of Mascali were spread 
out like a map beneath them. Fields covered with dry canes 
of a light yellow hue, patches of green grain and dark masses 
— the site of vineyards or arable land — combined to form a 
parterre, which, as the setting sun fell richly over it, had all 
the effect of an extensive garden. Beyond was the Mediter- 
ranean, necked with a few snow-white sails ; far away to the 
left, Taormina, hanging, as it were, on a bold promontory, on 
the summit of which are the remains of an extensive amphi- 
theatre, and nearer around the slopes and valleys, the lava- 
beds and trees of the venerable mountain. If the morning's 
prospect inspired something of awe, that of the evening only 
excited gladsome sensations. It spoke of plenty, of fertility, 
of a bounteous and beautiful country. 

" How unutterably sad," said Vittorio, as they were slowly 
descending, " that so fair a heritage should be so unhappily 
peopled — that superstition and ignorance should overshadow 
so rich a domain, and that where we rejoice so highly in the 
exuberance and fine array of nature, we must mourn most 
deeply for the poverty and wretched condition of humanity." 

M One would think," replied Isabel, " that to live amid 
such influences as these — to have sweet harmony breathed 
upon the soul from such aspects of creation, day by day, and 
year by year, would impart a blessedness which even the de- 
grading agencies at work upon these poor people could not 
supersede." 

" Government is more of a reality to most men than na- 
ture," drily observed her uncle. 

" Happily, however," she replied, " nature operates silently, 
and may produce effects upon character of which the casual 
spectator dreams not." 

" Yes," added the count, " and it is a happy thought, that 
2* 



34 SICILY. 

many a noble aspiration or grateful sentiment may have been 
aroused in the breast of the poor villager, as he descended 
this path, with no companion but his mule, and looked forth, 
as we now do, upon the luxuriant earth and the glad sea. 
There is a lesson for the wisest, and a balm for the most 
stricken, in this landscape.'' 

For some moments they continued the descent in silence, 
till an exclamation from one of the party caused them to 
look back. From the white and lofty cone of Etna, a dense 
column of smoke was rising majestically. To the height of 
several yards, it ascended in a perpendicular line, and then 
gracefully turning, floated in a wide and saffron-colored streak 
along the face of the sky. 

" This is all you wanted to complete your day's good for- 
tune," said the guide ; " it is not for every stranger that the 
mountain will smoke." They continued to watch this inter- 
esting phenomenon long after their return to Griarra ; and 
when night had overshadowed the scene, a few flashes of 
flame from the awakened crater, and an almost constant effu- 
sion of sparks, amply repaid tljem for their vigil. 

The next day proved as fine as the preceding, and to ob- 
tain a more pleasing succession of prospects, it was deter- 
mined to prosecute the remainder of their journey by the 
mule-path. As the distance was but about twenty-seven 
miles, it was not deemed desirable to depart before early 
noon. Isabel devoted the intervening time to repose ; Vit- 
torio went to make the necessary arrangements ; and Frazier 
repaired to the adjoining village to visit a wine-merchant, 
with whom he had been acquainted many years before in 
England. When the party again came together and resumed 
their journey, they found themselves for some time upon the 
carriage-road, and in view of scenery not differing essentially 
from that of the preceding day. Occasionally they passed 



JOURNEY TO CATANIA. 35 

large flocks of goats, driven by boys, who carried the young 
kids slung upon their shoulders, or a company of peasants, 
each with his donkey, bearing, in long, narrow barrels, hung 
like panniers, wine from the hills into the neighboring town. 

u My friend told me," said Frazier, a that the chief em- 
ployment of these people is to transport the wine in this 
manner. It is taken from large butts, such as we saw at the 
cottage yesterday. Each of those little casks contains about 
eighteen gallons of the most ordinary wine the country pro- 
duces. It is chiefly used for distillation, yielding about one 
part in seven of pure spirit. The compensation these car- 
riers obtain would not be considered in America as equiva- 
lent for an hour's work. But in time of vintage their pay is 
increased, and after all, in this country, it requires little to 
support life." 

" No," said Vittorio ; " give a Sicilian peasant a little 
fennel or roasted pulse, a small dish of maccaroni, or a few 
pounds of bread with a mug of common wine, and he fares 
like a lord." 

"But seldom acquires the strength of a man," replied 
Frazier ; " for notwithstanding their broad chests and muscu- 
lar limbs, they cannot be called strong, at least in proportion 
to appearances." 

" You have told us nothing, uncle," said Isabel, " of your 
visit to Riposto. How did you find your old friend ?" 

" I found him sitting on an old sofa, in a bare-looking 
room, stirring the coals in a brazier with the key of his maga- 
zine. I rallied him upon his taste in preferring so dreary a 
life on the coast of Sicily to the comforts of old England. 
But he declared himself well satisfied with his lot. There 
he was, surrounded with coopers, stills, freighting boats, jack- 
asses, a few chemical books, and a set of half-civilized Sicil- 
ians — all the paraphernalia of a wine-merchant on the coast ; 



36 SICILY. 

as busy and happy in his exile as many who had never been 
away from the light of their own firesides. Such is the force 
of habit. In practical application, in forwarding, however 
humbly, the economy of life, almost any man may enjoy a 
contented existence." 

" A contented, granted, uncle," said Isabel, " but not ne- 
cessarily a happy or an improving one." 

" Kiposto," continued Frazier, " fifty years since, was a 
meagre collection of cane-huts. Now there are many sub- 
stantial dwellings, but like every other house in this region, 
miserably planned, cold, dark, and comfortless. The beach 
is covered with barrels. Coasting vessels are continually 
launched, loaded with wine, and the little town looks quite 
bustling. Were it situated, with all its local advantages, in 
New England, they would connect it forthwith with the capi- 
tal by a rail-road, speculate in the land for miles around, and 
prophesy a city charter for it in less than a twelvemonth." 

The mule-path into which they now entered was through a 
lava soil. At one point the old lava, lying in masses half 
covered with vegetation, indicates the scene of that eruption 
which stayed the progress of the Roman army on its way to 
quell an insurrection in Syracuse, and obliged them to turn 
and make the circuit of the island in another direction. Pass- 
ing through the broad clear street of Aci Reale, Isabel looked 
up to the decayed palaces, and on the groups of well-cloaked 
loiterers in the piazza, and forcibly felt the impoverished con- 
dition of even the finest localities. Sometimes she amused 
herself with noting the defaced escutcheon upon an ancient 
gateway, sometimes in watching the thin, white line of smoke 
hanging over Etna, and at others, in seeking, amid the sur- 
rounding trees, for the oak and the fir, the pleasant emblems 
of her native land, which, at intervals, varied the scene. The 
increase of the lava-beds, and the greater prevalence of the 






JOURNEY TO CATANIA. 37 

olive-tree,. at length evidenced that they were near their des- 
tination. And soon after they paused at a little elevation, 
and, with new delights, Isabel beheld upon a verdant plain 
near the sea, the Saracenic domes and wide-spreading dwel- 
lings of Catania. 



SStantri. 

I have learned 
To look on Nature, not as in the hour 
Of thoughtless youth, but hearing oftentimes 
The still sad music of humanity. Wordsworth. 

THE late Prince of Biscari was the Koscoe of Catania, 
Affluent, as well as nobly born, instead of leading the 
selfish and dissipated life too common among the Sicilian no- 
bility, he assiduously devoted his wealth and influence to the 
cause of liberal taste. Many works of public utility, entirely 
the result of his enterprise and philanthropy, are to be Seen 
both within and without his native city. His house was the 
resort of strangers, to whom he extended the greatest hospi- 
tality. The beautiful granite columns attached to the cathe- 
dral of St. Agatha, by Roger, the traces of baths in the vaults 
beneath, a few arches of an aqueduct in the campagna, and 
the subterranean remains of an amphitheatre near one of the 
gates, would be the chief antiquities of which the Catanese 
could boast had it not been for the exertions of Biscari. At 
his expense nearly the whole of a Greek theatre has been 
excavated, and many valuable relics collected and arranged 
in a museum, which bears his name. These labors would 
doubtless have proceeded much further, and been productive 






BISCARL 39 

of the most pleasing fruits, had the life of the generous no- 
bleman been spared. Enough, however, was accomplished to 
render his name illustrious as a public benefactor, and to ex- 
emplify how widely useful wealth may become in the hands 
of one with liberality freely to bestow it, and judgment wisely 
to direct its disbursement. 

As Isabel, Vittorio, and Frazier, were on their way to 
visit these vestiges of antiquity, they were struck with the 
unusual number of devotees surrounding a shrine under a 
long archway. The object of their reverence was a celebrated 
madonna, exquisitely painted upon a slab of lava. Though 
quite ancient, the colors wore a fresh appearance, and the 
face was in that peculiar style of meek and pensive beauty 
which distinguishes these products of the pencil. Around 
the picture were hung human limbs moulded in wax, and the 
figures of infants, upon which were colored the tokens of dis- 
ease. " These," said Vittorio, i: are the emblems of miracu- 
lous cures, and are placed there as grateful offerings by the 
sufferers, whose prayers this virgin is supposed to have an- 
swered. This is a common method of acknowledging the 
favors of saints in Sicily." 

Near the principal ruin stands the frame-work of a lesser 
theatre, wherein the musicians rehearsed. Beneath the dingy 
hues of time, and the marks of violation, it is still possible to 
descry a few architectural indications of what the edifice 
formly was. But the travellers were principally struck with 
the contrast between the original purpose and present appro- 
priation of the building. It is, and has been for years, the 
dwelling-place of a score of poor families, whom long usage, 
more than right of property, has left in undisputed possession. 

" Here is a change indeed !" said the count — " the temple 
of harmony converted into a poor-house ; the spot consecrated 
to the study of an elevating science, where Grecian professors 



40 SICILY. 

were wont to vie with each other in melodious strains, become 
the last refuge of the sons of want ! Where rich cadences 
echoed, half-starved children cry ; where the dark, clear eye 
of the enthusiastic musician kindled, are the haggard faces of 
beggars. Sounds of complaint and emblems of squalid misery 
fill the walls where a luxurious art was cultivated, and the 
victims of indigence throng the once gay resort of the vota- 
ries of Euterpe !" 

They passed on and entered the area of the theatre. 
Several rows of stone seats are here discoverable, overgrown 
with weeds, and at their base flows a limpid spring. To 
Isabel the scene was altogether new. She traced the passages 
along which the spectators passed, the places assigned to the 
distinguished among the audience, and endeavored to picture 
the whole fabric, of which the portion now discernible was 
evidently but a small part. She fancied the brilliancy of the 
scene, when the cold stones around her were hidden by the 
assembled multitude ; when ranges of human faces were 
turned in myriads toward the scena; when the profound 
stillness of attention, the deep murmur of approval, and the 
loud acclamations of delight alternately stirred the now still 
air. She thought of the eyes that once glistened with emo- 
tion in that place, now rayless — of the human hearts which 
responded, in tumultuous beatings, to the voice of song or 
the appeal of eloquence, now pulseless forever. She thought 
of the efforts of thought, the thrills of feeling, and the beam- 
ings of inspiration, which this deserted scene might have 
witnessed ; and as she musingly gazed upon the marble, half 
covered with lava, corroded by time, and clad in the rank 
herbage which shrouds the neglected works of man, a new 
and solemn sense of the revolutions of time stole over her, 
like the slowly-gathering shadows of an autumn evening, 
chastening each passion for earthly meeds, and bringing home 



BISCARL 41 

to the heart the truth, that that alone in man is eternal 
which allies him to his Maker. With torches they explored 
the damp and lonely corridors. Vittorio plucked a rose from 
a little bush which had taken root in one of the interstices 
of the seats, and gave it to Isabel as a memento of their visit. 
w Thus," said he, " nature flourishes amid the decay of art, as 
the mind's flowers bloom over and survive the destruction of 
its tenement. It has been asserted, and with some reason, 
that Alcibiades once delivered an oration in this theatre. 
There can be no doubt that it has beheld some master efforts 
of Grecian genius. And what though solitude and ruin mark 
the spot 1 What though the voice whose accents roused every 
heart is hushed ? What though the people that once congre- 
gated here are extinct ? Their essence lives, their poetry and 
philosophy — their history is deathless. What was false in 
their principles has been superseded ; what is true has been 
propelled into the eternal tide of humanity, and is immortal. " 
In the little chamber of the museum devoted to bronzes, 
Isabel noted with curiosity the implements of domestic econo- 
my, and the symbols of a period and a people long since 
passed away. To Vittorio, who was familiar with the Vatican 
and the Museo Borbonico, the collection, though interesting, 
was not so impressive as to the less experienced mind of his 
fair companion. She handled the curiously-wrought lamps 
which once illuminated the dwelling of a Grecian family, and 
inspected the little images which had constituted its house- 
hold gods, with mingled interest and incredulity. It had not 
been difficult for her to realize the ancient origin of the tem- 
ple whose decayed magnificence speaks eloquently of the past, 
but to feel that she was surrounded by the domestic utensils, 
the objects anciently familiar to that people whom she had 
been wont to regard with such reverence, seemed scarcely 
possible. 



42 SICILY. 

" The more I view the emblems of antiquity," she re- 
marked, "the more vividly I feel the truth of that trite 
saying — that ours is a common nature ; that the same pas- 
sions have swayed and the same general constitution charac- 
terized man from the earliest ages. I know not how it is, but 
I have never been able to feel till now that the ancients were 
men, such men as now people the earth, only differing in 
mode of life and method of development. But when I look 
upon these things, I feel that their wants were like ours — 
that the same burden of necessity was laid upon them ; but 
that, in the earnest culture of the intellectual and ideal, they 
beautified, as it were, the rough pathway of destiny, and 
warmed the weary atmosphere of being with the heavenly 
glow of enthusiasm." 

" What more striking evidence of the universal love of 
distinction which distinguishes the world can we have than 
this?" inquired Vittorio, pointing to some bronze toys. 
a These were the playthings of the patrician children : oppo- 
site are the same devices, wrought in the more humble ma- 
terial of terra cotta, for the diversion of the poorer class. 
The higher ranks then had penates and lamps of metal, the 
lower of earth. Now, in these streets, the duke wears a cloak 
of fine cloth, the laborer a garment of cotton. Such are the 
poor badges of earthly distinction !" 

They turned to look for Frazier. He was standing, with 
folded arms, attentively regarding a birchen canoe — an 
American trophy. Isabel, too, paused before the same ob- 
ject, and for some moments her mind wandered from the 
Grecian era to her father-land. Visions of blue lakes and 
green forests rose to view. She thought of her pleasant home, 
and mused upon the object of her pilgrimage, and her eye 
grew dim as she remembered how doubtful it still was whether 
she should ever retrace those scenes as the companion of her 



BISCARL 43 

father, Vittorio was meanwhile admiring the splendid Torso 
which adorns the collection and is a masterpiece of Grecian 
sculpture. 

" You talk of the Greeks," said Frazier to his niece ; 
tt but who shall say that the rude people whom this canoe 
represents understood not as much of the philosophy of life ? 
You smile ; but remember, Isabel, that the ancients were a 
luxurious race. They often cultivated the ornamental at the 
expense of the useful. They environed themselves with ar- 
rangements expensive and enervating. Their baths and the- 
atres, their statues and paintings, were agents of improve- 
ment, it is true, but how often did they become the means 
of voluptuous ease and selfish indulgence ! The sons of the 
forest, on the other hand, cherished an active, free, and noble 
life. Their bodies expanded as the Creator intended they 
should ; and habits of graceful activity and stern endurance 
marked them for men." 

" Yes," said Isabel, smiling at his warmth, u and for sym- 
bols of the beautiful they had no need. Architecture they 
beheld in the vaulted sky, in the erect shaft of the forest tree, 
in the green and gloomy aisles of the woodland. Statuary 
was finely illustrated in their own persons, and for the most 
magnificent landscapes, they had but to gaze upon the west- 
ern horizon, or into the clear mirror of the placid lakes. 
Thus furnished, their minds were nurtured, perhaps, but un- 
fortunately for your theory, never progressed." 

" I pray you," said Vittorio, " mark well these two busts, 
for they represent personages who are intimately associated 
with Sicily. That large head, garlanded with ears of corn, 
is Ceres. Would you have thought the goddess of so mas- 
culine and rustic a mien ? There is the bust of one of the 
most distinguished generals of that nation, whose incursions 
have so often ravaged the fair face of this island. Note the 



44 SICILY. 

stern and heavy features, the bald head, and that deep scar : 
they proclaim Scipio Africanus." 

Polished lava, Sicilian marbles, and a few little cabinets 
in the several departments of natural history, served for a 
while longer to entertain the visitors. The figures of a dead 
maiden and laughing boy illustrated the devotion to nature, 
which, more than any other characteristic, is evinced in the 
specimens of Greek sculpture. A few pretty examples of 
the chisel of Cali, the most celebrated modern Catanese 
sculptor, also drew their attention. After viewing the Etrus- 
can vases, one or two of which are of a rare order, and lin- 
gering among the fine old columnar fragments in the court, 
they left the quiet precincts of the museum. 



ftajn %t\\ini 



Point not these mysteries to an art, 

Lodged above tho starry pole ; 

Pure modulations flowing from the heart 

Of divine Love, where wisdom, beauty, truth, 

With order dwell in endless youth ? Wordsworth. 

IN the narrow street of St. Christofero, in Catania, and near 
the little church of the same order, now superseded by a 
larger edifice, was born the most beautiful composer of our 
times. To the imaginative mind of Isabel his name and 
memory were sacredly endeared. It has been said, that no 
after maturity of judgment can dissolve the spell by which 
the first poet we ever understood and enjoyed is hallowed in 
our estimation. On the same principle, the composer whose 
works are the means of awakening in our hearts a new sense 
of the wonder and power of his art, whose compositions sway 
our spirits as no others have done, and address our associa- 
tions with an eloquence, compared with which all similar lan- 
guage is unimpressive, holds a place in our estimation and 
affections second to that of no intellectual benefactor. He 
has opened to us a new world. He has brought a hitherto 
untried influence to stir the ocean of feeling. He has created 
yet another joy in the dim circle of our experience, and woven 



46 SICILY. 

a fresh and perennial flower into the withered garland of life. 
With the thought of Bellini, embalmed in such a sentiment 
of gratitude, Isabel, accompanied bj the count, who had ar- 
ranged the visit for her gratification, went forth to view the 
memorials of the departed that were in the possession of his 
family. 

" The young Vincenzo," said Vittorio, " from his earliest 
infancy, gave evidence of the genius of his nature. His sus- 
ceptibility to musical sounds was remarkable. He could be 
moved, at any time, to tears or laughter, to sadness or ecs- 
tacy, by the voice of harmony. While a mere child, after 
hearing on public occasions a new air, he would, on returning 
home, from memory transcribe it. At eight years old his 
little hands ran over the keys of the organ, at the Benedic- 
tine convent, with surprising facility. His first compositions 
were occasional pieces of sacred music. It was early discov- 
ered that he was a proper object of patronage, and, soon after 
arriving at manhood, he was sent, at the expense of govern- 
ment, to study at Naples and Rome. The result of an ac- 
quaintance with what had been effected in his art was to 
make more clearly perceptible to his mind the necessity of 
a new school. The history of genius in every department is 
almost always a record of conflicts — of struggles against what 
is dominant. Thus the early efforts of Bellini were fre- 
quently unappreciated and misunderstood. Still he perse- 
vered in consulting the oracle of his own gifts, and in devel- 
oping the peculiar and now universally admired style which 
marks his compositions. The first of his successful operas 
was the Pirata, then the Straniera, then the Somnambula, 
and then Norma.* In each successive work we can trace a 

* L'Adelson e Salvini, represented before the Institution at Naples, 
was the first open experiment of Bellini's genius, followed, in 1826, by 
Bianca e Fernando, at the St. Carlo Theatre. II Pirata and La Stra- 



V1NCENZ0 BELLIN 47 

decided progression. The first is pretty, often beautiful ; the 
last is throughout beautiful, and frequently sublime. It is a 
delightful thought, that in a country where literary talent is 
repelled by the restrictions on the press, musical genius is 
untrammelled, and human sentiment may, through this me- 
dium, find free and glorious development." 

" I have always regarded music," said Isabel, " as the per- 
fection of language." 

" Undoubtedly it should be so considered, and although 
the censors jealously guard the actual verbal expressions at- 
tached to operas, to a true imagination and just sensibility, 
the mere notes of masterpieces are perfectly distinguishable, 
as expressive of the thousand sentiments which sway the 
heart. Bellini, it is believed, was one of that secret society 
which has for some time existed, under the title of u Young 
Italy," whose aim is the restoration of these regions to inde- 
pendence ; and we can read, or rather feel, the depth and fer- 
vor of his liberal sentiments, breathing in the glowing strains 
of his last opera — the Puritani." 

Thus conversing, they arrived at the residence of his fam- 
ily, where, with emotions of melancholy interest, they viewed 
the tokens of his brief but brilliant career. There were little 
remembrancers whose workmanship testified that they were 
wrought by fair hands ; the order of the legion of honor ; a 
rich carpet, worked by the ladies of Milan, with the names 
of his operas tastefully interwoven, and many fantasies and 
fragments written by his own hand. There was something 
indescribably touching in the sight of these trophies. Isabel 
felt, as she gazed upon them, how empty and unavailing are 

niera, successively produced at the Scala in Milan, completely estab- 
lished his reputation. The Montecchi e Capuleti was brought out 
soon after at Venice. The Somnambula and Norma at Milan, and the 
Puritani in Paris. 



48 SICILY. 

the tributes men pay to living genius compared with that 
heritage of fame which is its after-recompense. What were 
these glittering orders to the breast they once adorned — now 
mouldering in the grave ? And these indications of woman's 
regard, which, perhaps, more than any other, pleased the 
heart of the young Catanese ? How like the deckings of 
vanity did they seem now, when he for whom they were play- 
fully wrought was enshrined among the sons of fame ! How 
sad, too, to behold the slight characters and unconnected 
notes — the recorded inspiration of him who alone could 
rightly combine and truly set forth their meaning ! How 
affecting to look upon these characters — the t pencillings of 
genius, and remember that the hand which inscribed them 
was cold in the tomb ! But Isabel dwelt longest and most 
intently upon a miniature of Bellini, taken at the age of 
twenty-three, after the representation of the Pirata. It por- 
trayed the youthful composer with a pale intellectual counte- 
nance, an expansive and noble brow, and hair of the lightest 
auburn. There was a striking union of gentleness and in- 
telligence, of lofty capacity and kindly feeling, in the por- 
trait. 

" How unlike the generality of his countrymen !" ex- 
claimed Isabel, who had looked for the dark eye and hair of 
the nation. 

" Nature, in every respect," replied Vittorio, " marked 
him for a peculiar being. Yet the softness and quiet repose 
of the countenance is like his harmony. The mildness of ( 
the eye and the delicacy of the complexion speak of refine- 
ment. The whole physiognomy is indicative of taste and 
sentiment, a susceptibility and grace almost womanly, and, at 
the same time, a thoughtfulness and calm beauty, which 
speak of intellectual labor and suffering. The face of Bel- 
lini here depicted, is like his music, moving, expressive, and 



VINCENZO BELLINI. 49 

graceful. I have seen portraits taken at a later age with 
less of youth, and perhaps, for that reason, less of interest in 
their expression. During his lifetime all he received for his 
works, not absolutely requisite for his support, was imme- 
diately sent to his family. And now his aged father may be 
said, in a double sense, to live on the fame of his son, since, 
in consideration of that son's arduous labors in the cause of 
music, which in southern Europe may be considered perhaps 
the only truly national object of common interest, the old 
man receives a pension from government, quite adequate to 
his maintenance." 

" I think," said Isabel, as the party were seated in the 
opera-house the same evening, u that the great characteristic 
of Bellini is what may be called his metaphysical accuracy. 
There is an intimate correspondence between the idea of the 
drama and the notes of the music. What a perfect tone of 
disappointed affection lurks in the strain i Ah ! perche non 
posso odiarti V — the favorite air in the Somnambula ; and 
who that should unpreparedly hear the last duet of the Nor- 
ma, would not instantly feel that it is the mingled expression 
of despair and fondness ? How warlike and rousing^ are the 
Druidical choruses, and what peace breathes in the Hymn to 
the Moon ! It is this delicate and earnest adaptation of the 
music to the sentiment, this typifying of emotion in melody, 
that seems to me to render Bellini's strains so heart-stirring." 

"In other words," said Vittorio, "he affects us power- 
fully, for the same reason that Shakspeare, or any other uni- 
versally acknowledged genius, excites our sympathy. His 
music is true. He has been called the Petrarch of harmony, 
that poet being deemed by the Italians the most perfect por- 
tray er of love." 

" And would that his fate had been more like that bard's !" 
exclaimed Isabel. " How melancholy that he should have 

3 



50 SICILY. 

died so young, in the very moment, as it were, of success and 
honor ! I shall never forget the sorrow I felt when his death 
was announced to me. I was in a ball-room. The scene was 
gay and festive. The band had performed in succession the 
most admired quadrilles from his operas. I was standing in 
a circle which surrounded a party of waltzers, and expressed 
the delight I had received from the airs we had just heard. 
My companion responded, and sighing, calmly said, ' What a 
pity he will compose no more !' When I thus learned the 
fact of his death, and afterwards the particulars, a gloom 
came over my spirits, which, during the evening, had been 
uncommonly buoyant. I retired to the most solitary part 
of the room, and indulged the reflections thus suddenly 
awakened. * How few,' thought I, c of this gay throng, as they 
dance to the enlivening measures of Bellini, will breathe a 
sigh for his untimely end, or give a grateful thought to his 
memory. ' Some of the company passed me on their way to 
the music-room. I joined them. A distinguished amateur, 
with a fine bass voice, had taken his seat at the instrument. 
For a moment he turned over the book listlessly, and then, 
as if inspired by a pleasing recollection, burst forth in that 
mournfully-beautiful cavatina, l Vi ravisso luoghi ameni. 1 
He sang it with much feeling. There was silent and pro- 
found attention. The tears rose to my eyes. To my excited 
imagination we seemed to be listening to the dirge of Bellini ; 
and, as the last lengthened note died on the lips of the vocal- 
ist — thus, thought I, he expired. Little did I then think I 
should ever see the native city of the composer, or sit in tho 
opera-house which he doubtless frequented." 

" It but this moment occurred to me," replied Vittorio, 
" that, perhaps, in this very place Bellini first learned to ap- 
preciate the science he afterwards so signally advanced ; to 
realize the expressiveness of the agency he afterwards so ef- 



V1NCENZ0 BELLINI. 51 

fectually wielded ; to feel the power of the art to whose ad- 
vancement he afterwards so nobly contributed. Perhaps 
here first dawned on his young ambition the thought of being 
a composer. Perhaps, as the breathings of love, grief, fear, 
and triumph here stirred his youthful breast, the bright hope 
of embodying them in thrilling music, and thus living in his 
( land's language,' rose, like the star of destiny, before his 
awakened fancy." 

There is a narrow but sequestered road leading from Ca- 
tania to Cifali, just without the Porta D' Aci. A low plaster 
wall separates it on both sides from extensive gardens, the 
site of an ancient burial-place, where memorials of the dead 
have been frequently disinterred. Over the top of these 
boundaries the orange and almond trees, in the season of 
spring, refresh the pedestrian with their blossoms and per- 
fume. In the early mornings of summer, or at the close of 
the day, this road is often sought by the meditative, being 
less frequented than most of the other highways leading from 
the city. There one can stroll along and interest himself 
with the thought of the now extinct people near whose ruined 
sepulchres he is treading, or gaze upon the broad face and 
swelling cone of Etna which rises before him. At an agreea- 
ble distance from the commencement of this path is an old 
monastery of Franciscans. The floor of the venerable church 
is covered with the deeply-carved tablets, beneath which are 
the remains of the Catanese nobility, their arms elaborately 
sculptured upon the cold slabs. Strangers sometimes visit a 
chapel adjacent to see a well-executed bust, which displays 
the features of the nobleman who lies beneath, and is thought 
to be the capo d ] opera of a Roman sculptor. The adjoining 
chapel is assigned as the last resting-place of Vincenzo Bel- 
lini, whose monument will soon exhibit its fresh-chiselled 
aspect amid the time-worn emblems around. Thither, one 



52 SICILY. 

morning, Isabel and the count wandered, and, after leaving 
the church, sat upon a stone bench which overlooked the 
scene, and to her inquiries as to the funeral honors paid, in 
his native island, to the memory of the composer, he replied — 

u You should have witnessed in order to realize the uni- 
versal grief of the Catanese. Business was suspended. 
Every voice faltered as it repeated the tidings ; every eye 
was moistened as it marked the badges of mourning. In the 
capital the same spirit prevailed. There, but a few months 
previous, the king entered the city, and no voice hailed him, 
because the professions made at the outset of his reign were 
unfulfilled. The gifted composer came, and acclamations 
welcomed him. Every testimony of private regard and pub- 
lic honor was displayed. His sojourn was a festival — so the 
news of his death created universal grief. Here, in the spirit 
of antiquity, an oration was pronounced in the theatre, his 
favorite airs performed, and actors, in the old Sicilian cos- 
tume, represented the effect of his death by an appropriate 
piece, with mournful music. In the streets were processions, 
in the churches masses, and in the heart of every citizen pro- 
found regret." 

" And this," said Isabel, glancing over the scene, u is a 
fit place for "his repose. He will sleep at the foot of Etna, 
amid the nobles of his native city. The ladies of this villa, 
as they wander through the garden in the still summer even- 
ings, will sing his most soothing strains. The peasant, as he 
rides by on his mule, at the cool hour of dawn, will play upon 
his reeds the gladdest notes, the choir in the church will 
chant the anthems, and the blind violinist, as he rests by the 
road-side, cheer himself with the pleasant music of the de- 
parted composer." 

They rose to depart. As Isabel looked back, and began 
to lose sight of the ancient convent, she observed a lofty ey- 



V1NCENZ0 BELLINI. 53 

press at the corner of the road. As its dense foliage waved 
solemnly^ and its spire-like cone pointed heavenward, it ap- 
peared to her saddened fancy like a mournful sentinel, stand- 
ing to guard from sacrilege, and point out for homage, the 
last resting-place of Bellini. 



% Mft in Cfotam 

Gentle or rude, 
No scene of life but has contributed 
Much to remember. Rogers. 

"T1THAT wise book so engages your attention?" asked 
> ' Isabel of her uncle, who had been for some time in- 
tent upon a little parchment-bound volume. 

u It is a literary curiosity, given me by our host to amuse 
myself with till we go out, being nothing more nor less than 
his album, wherein his merits are set forth in all languages, 
and in every variety of terms. One praises him as a cicerone 
in ascending the mountain, one as a caterer, and another as a 
nurse. There is an essay on the instability of fame, and a 
warning to beware of the moroseness of declining years. An 
Italian merchant reiterates again and again, that what he says 
in the landlord's praise is true, as if he realized the slight 
tenure of his nation's reputation for integrity ; and an Eng- 
lishman begs leave to recommend the inn to his countrymen, 
as if no other individuals in the wide world were worthy of 
the honor. There are sonnets and aphorisms, quotations and 
parodies, and I cannot tell whether the volume owes it variety 
to the quaint mood of the travellers or the peculiar quality 
of our host's wine." 



. A WALK IN CATANIA. 55 

K Not less than half the inhabitants of this town," said 
the count, as they went forth on their proposed walk, li de- 
rive their subsistence from the silk manufacture. Half the 
houses are provided with looms ; and the raw material, pur- 
chased at fairs of the country people, is woven by the poorer 
class of citizens, and sold to the fabricant, who, in his turn, 
executes the orders of the merchant." 

" Pride, if not policy," said Frazier, as they passed the im- 
mense skeleton of a palace, u would lead an American or an 
Englishman to finish such an edifice when so far completed." 

" Economy is a more powerful motive here," replied Vit- 
torio ; " the noble proprietor, after proceeding to this extent 
in erecting his dwelling, found that the opposite wing was 
sufficient for his purposes, and therefore took possession of it, 
leaving, without a particle of compunction, this unsightly wall 
to deform the street." 

A number of young men, wearing cocked hats, and another 
group in flowing gowns of red bombazine, passed by and at- 
tracted the notice of Isabel. 

" Here you see," said the count, " a good illustration of 
the efforts constantly made in this part of the world to divide 
the ranks of society. That first knot of youths are the sons 
of noblemen, and members of a college founded by a princely 
family — the other charity students. The cafe at that corner 
is frequented only by the nobility — the one at this by the 
citizens." 

The lofty court-yard of the college, the massive front or 
commanding position of a convent, or the extensive structures 
appropriated as hospitals, by turns excited the inquiries of 
the strangers. They strolled along the small but pleasant 
marina, and marked the mole, formed by the lava, as it was 
arrested after invading the sea, and the narrow bed of the 
river filled with women busily washing. They paused in the 



56 SICILY. 

principal piazza to observe the old statue of the elephant, 
bearing a small Egyptian obelisk, and stood for some time in 
the sacristy of the cathedral, before a rough fresco painting, 
representing the eruption of 1669. As they were walking up 
the Strada Etnea, and admiring the fine vista, an old gateway 
at one end, and the mountain at the other, they perceived a 
crowd entering a church. Joining the throng, they found 
themselves suddenly removed from the noise and bustle of a 
public street into the solemn precincts of a religious temple, 
and in view of an affecting ceremony. It was the funeral of 
a nun. Behind a temporary partition, covered with black 
cloth, and marked with the effigies of death, a band of mu- 
sicians were performing. At several of the altars priests 
were celebrating mass. Far above, through gilt gratings, ap- 
peared the sisterhood, their heads concealed in white folds, 
and their dark eyes bent through the apertures down upon 
the crowd. The marble floor was quite covered with kneel- 
ing figures, some in dark silk hoods and mantles, some with 
light shawls thrown slightly over their shoulders, and others 
in bonnets and cloaks. Behind the railing, near one of the 
altars, extended upon an open bier, and shrouded in black, was 
seen the corpse. A bunch of artificial flowers nodded over 
the head, a crucifix lay upon the breast, and fresh rose leaves 
were scattered over the shroud. Prayer after prayer was 
said, response after response uttered, and strain after strain of 
sacred music performed, till the body was borne away for in- 
terment, and the crowd dispersed. 

When Isabel again joined the passing multitude it was 
with a mind solemnized by this unexpected scene. Vittorio 
had met an acquaintance in the church, and learned some- 
thing of the nun's history. 

" The poor girl," said he, " was not twenty years old on 
the day of her death. Her father was a wealthy tradesman, 






A WALK TO CATANIA. 57 

and was very willing his daughter should take the vows, as 
the cost of an entertainment consequent upon her profession 
would not by any means equal the dowry which might reasona- 
bly be demanded in case of her marriage. The one cost a 
few hundreds : the other would have required thousands. She 
was therefore unhesitatingly consigned to the convent ; and 
every one praised the munificence of her father when they 
beheld the fire-works and tasted the comfits provided at his 
expense, on the evening of her initiation. It was but seven 
months since, and now she is in her grave. To such intensity 
of selfishness will avarice and superstition sometimes bring a 
father ; to such a melancholy end will mistaken piety lead a 
woman." 

" Perhaps," said Isabel, " she was unhappy in her home. 
Perhaps she pined for a love not there vouchsafed her. Per- 
haps her young heart was wasted and worn with unavailing 
yearning ; her best feelings checked by repeated disappoint- 
ments ; her warm affections chilled and blighted by neglect. 
Then it was but natural that she should turn from her home 
and seek such an asylum as she would a living death. I 
fancied I could read the lines of care as well as the ravages 
of disease upon her dead face." 

" At all events," said Vittorio, " her course was the re- 
verse of woman's lot as Heaven ordained it. No more certain 
is it that the flower was made to waft perfume than that 
woman's destiny is a ministry of love, a life of the affections. 
And she who voluntarily abandons the world, resigns the part 
assigned her by the Creator in the elevation of society, in re- 
fining, soothing, and making happy the human heart. She 
abandons the sick couch, whose weariness none else can as- 
suage ; she leaves the world's denizen, whose worldliness she 
could best have tempered ; she quits the despondent, whom 
she might have cheered, and the young being whose delicate 

3* 



58 SICILY. 

impulses she is bost fitted to guide to virtue. Her duty, 
toilsome and self-sacrificing as it often is, is yet noble, and 
may be made angelic. " 

" Did you remark." inquired Isabel, u that people of every 
description were continually entering the church during the 
funeral? Idle young men, roughly-attired country -people, 
servants on their way from market, and children returning 
from school — all went in, breathed a prayer for the dead, and 
then hastened away on their several errands. I could not but 
think, with all my protestant prejudices, how salutary might 
sometimes be the effect of such ceremonies, encountered as 
they are in every state of mind and without warning." 

No brighter hour had smiled upon their pilgrimage than 
when they reached the beautiful convent of the Benedictines. 
Passing through the magnificent entrance, and up the lofty 
staircase, they threaded the spacious corridors lined with the 
chambers of the fraternity, over the doors of which are full- 
length pictures of saints, and entered the superb garden of 
the monastery. Isabel wandered away from her companions, 
and paced the neatly-paved walks in silent delight. The deep 
and compact verdure of the cypress and myrtles, trimmed in 
the English style into fine artificial forms, refreshed the eye 
on every side. Roses flaunted their rich tints in the morn- 
ing breeze ; geraniums perfumed the air ; and the yellow 
blossoms of the cassia-tree waved in rich contrast with its 
soft green leaves. Little white monuments, planted at inter- 
vals among the shrubs, basins of gold-fish, and neatly deco- 
rated terraces, combined to form a scene more like the sweet 
pictures of Eastern climes than a present reality. From the 
extremities of the walks, far round the massive enclosure, 
was visible, in crude and heavy piles, the lava of 1669, which 
stayed its fatal course only at the walls of the convent ; its 
rough, black aspect relieved by the only vegetation which 



A WALK TO CATANIA. 59 

seems congenial to so unkindly a soil — the thick and heavy 
branches of the prickly pear. Above towered Etna ; around 
spread the olive hills. Never had Isabel beheld so delightful 
a garden. Seated upon one of the stone benches, or slowly 
walking to and fro in the cheerful alleys, she long lingered in 
the pleasant domain, while her uncle sought, in the museum 
of the monastery, entertainment more accordant with his 
taste. One of the old gardeners gathered her a bouquet, and 
another proffered a large cluster of blood-oranges plucked 
from an over-laden tree. 

u And this is winter !" she exclaimed to the count. " It 
is surely no great merit to prefer so lovely a retreat to the 
rude highway of the world. In reading and communing with 
Nature, methinks life might pass here in quiet but enviable 
enjoyment, did I not know that local circumstances, however 
auspicious, could not satisfy the wants of the soul ; that the 
fairest flowers of earth could not atone for neglected affec- 
tions, nor the most delightful scenery brighten into beauty 
the desert of inaction." 

a You speak most truly. Yet of the many monastic re- 
treats which I have visited, no one seems half so inviting as 
this. There is a peculiar gloom in most of the convents on 
the continent, and a stern look about the fraternities. Here, 
on the contrary, you perceive a light and elegant air pervad- 
ing the whole institution. The members of this convent are 
all nobly born Sicilians ; no others are admitted. Their 
library is excellent, and the situation and arrangement of their 
abode, as you see, most charming. But I have ever thought 
that solitary and barren prospects were more in unison with 
the spirit and aim of monachism. If it is for human good to 
be altogether absorbed in self-contemplation, then let not Na- 
ture and Art be invoked for their treasures. Let there be no 
symbol of beauty to call off the spirit from meditation, and 



60 SICILY. 

no hue of freshness to divert the ever-present thought of 
death. In this very clinging to the fair emblems of nature 
and humanity, which we see in the monks, I find an evidence 
of the fallacy of their theory," 

"What an irrational investment of an income of more 
than twenty thousand dollars !" said Frazier, who now joined 
them, " to feed and clothe a body of men, who have ignobly 
turned aside from the warfare of life. Were I king, or rather 
president of Sicily, I would, in my first message to congress, 
recommend that these sleek gentlemen should be punished for 
such a selfish appropriation of their patrimonies, by being 
obliged to transfer them to the public treasury for a charity 
fund." 

" This picture," said Vittoriq, as they entered the church, 
"represents St. Benedict receiving into the convent two prin- 
ces, presented to him by their father. What a benignant ex- 
pression glows in the old man's face ! It is one of the finest 
pictures in Catania. Most of the other paintings are of sec- 
ondary merit, and illustrate tales of the greatest superstition. 
Do you see those gaily-pictured Turks, and that flying figure 
drawing up the boy through the ceiling? That child, they 
say, was stolen from Catania by the infidels, and employed as 
a house-servant. One day, as he waited on them at dinner, 
he was observed to weep : c Why do you grieve V asked his 
master. ' Because,' said the child, l to-day is a great festival 
in my country — the feast of St. Nicholas, and I was thinking 
of my father and mother, my brothers and sisters — how hap- 
py they are, and I in a foreign land and a slave !' Upon this 
the Turks abused him, and ridiculed his faith to such a de- 
gree, that St. Nicholas, feeling his dignity insulted, came 
through the wall and bore the child away by the hair of his 
head, before the eyes of the astonished infidels, as you see 
there depicted." 



A WALK TO CATANIA. 61 

Before his auditors could comment upon this character- 
istic miracle, their attention was more pleasingly arrested. 
The thrilling notes of the splendid organ, one of the most 
celebrated in Europe, resounded through the church. Now 
breathing in soft, flute-like cadences, now ringing like a fine 
harp-string, and anon pealing forth the sound of a trumpet, it 
vibrated upon the ear, and entranced the heart of Isabel. 
The spirit of devotion awoke as she listened. She silently 
commended herself to heaven. The music ceased, as they 
stood within the richly-carved choir, and directly over the 
tablet behind the altar, beneath which the brotherhood are 
buried. Impressed with the morning's experience, they turned 
to leave the spacious temple ; Frazier lamenting its inutility, 
Vittorio regretting the distasteful lightness which mars its 
just effect, and Isabel rejoicing in its holy influences. 



Where the gray stones and unmolested grass, 
Ages, but not oblivion, feebly brave, 

While strangers only not regardless pass. 

Childe Harold. 

UPON the eastern coast of Sicily, at the distance of about 
twelve leagues from Catania, a broad neck of land 
stretches into the Mediterranean, which divides it by a very 
narrow channel from the shore, thus justifying its claim to 
the appellation of an island. This spot is covered with the 
compact buildings of an ancient town, and being surrounded 
by a double wall, and several lines of neat though low ram- 
parts, presents to the approaching traveller a secure and in- 
teresting appearance. This is the site of one of the five 
cities, which together constituted the greatest metropolis of 
the island, and one of the most renowned of the ancient world. 
The adjacent plain contains numerous, though comparatively 
insignificant remains of the other sections of that illustrious 
region. Above and around them the tall grain and scarlet 
poppy wave in the sea-breeze, and countless fig-trees and low 
vines spread their broad leaves to the sun, through the whole 
extent of eighteen miles, once covered with magnificent dwel- 
lings, temples, and streets, and so often alive with the tumult 



SYRACUSE. 63 

of warfare. A long, bright day had passed with our pilgrims 
as they traced the relics and revived the associations of Syra- 
cuse ; and at its close they sat by the open window of the 
hotel, watching the sun's last glow as it fell over the tranquil 
waters of the great harbor — that beautiful and capacious bay 
upon which the fleets of Athenians, Carthaginians, and Ro- 
mans had so often manoeuvred, and which is now so admira- 
bly adapted to secure to the city at whose base it rolls the 
palm of commercial prosperity, yet is scarcely stirred, save 
by the oars of the fisherman, or the shallow keel of a Maltese 
speronare. The same stagnation which has calmed its clear 
blue surface, broods over the old city, and as the strangers 
gazed from their retired position, in the soothing light of 
eventide, no sound of human enterprise came up from the 
narrow streets, and they dwelt upon the past without being 
conscious of the present. It is one of the true delights of 
travelling, that when the day's fatigues are over, we can re- 
call its experience, denuded of the weariness and untoward 
circumstances which may have marred its just impressiveness. 
We can revoke the interesting, and forget the disagreeable. 
"We can combine into pleasant forms the light and shade, the 
relievo and the back-ground of the actual picture, and trans- 
form it to fairy-beauty in the magic glass of imagination. It 
is delightful to converse and reflect upon the associations of 
a memorable place when the locality is fresh in the memory — 
when we are standing on the hallowed ground, and breathing 
the inspiring air of a scene whose history is written among 
Time's earliest chronicles. Within the few preceding hours 
the little party had traced the boundaries of Acradina, Tyche, 
Neapolis, and Epipolae. They were already within Ortygia. 
They had ascended the narrow mouth of the Anapus, and 
seen the ancient papyrus growing on its banks. Frazier had 
measured the two remaining columns of the temples of 



64 SICILY. 

Olympic Jove ; Isabel had gathered from the walls of the 
celebrated prison of the Syracusan tyrant, a bunch of that 
delicate green weed, called by the Italians the hair of Venus, 
which hangs in such graceful festoons from the damp stones 
of ruins ; and Vittorio had lifted up there his finely modula- 
ted voice, and called forth that marvellous echo, which so 
often carried to the ears of the listening tyrant the secret 
converse of his prisoners. They had traced the wheel-marks 
in the ancient streets, and stood amid broken tombs, whose 
very ashes <the breath of ages has long since scattered. They 
had seen the moss-grown seats of the amphitheatre, and the 
crumbling arches of the aqueducts. They had leaned over 
the triangular parapet, and gazed down upon a clear, shallow 
stream, gurgling over stones, and filled with sun-burnt and 
bare-legged washerwomen, and tried to realize that it was the 
fountain of Arethusa. They had roamed over the field where 
the Roman army were so long encamped, and they had looked 
upon Mount Hybla. However disappointment might have 
cooled, as it ever will, the zeal of the imaginative, when they 
compare the actual with the ideal, there was enough in the 
mere outline of the day's observation to furnish subjects for 
musing and discussion. 

" We have seen to-day," said Isabel, " the miserable relics 
of a once splendid city. Let us now speak of those whose 
names are identified with its history, and the remembrance 
of whom constitutes, after all, the true romance of this spot. 
Come, count, I call upon you for the classical retrospect. 
For notwithstanding my limited acquaintance with such sub- 
jects, 

" I love the high mysterious dreams, 
Born 'mid the olive woods by Grecian streams.' " 

" The prettiest fable," replied he, " that I remember con- 
nected with Syracuse is that of Arethusa. You know she 



SYRACUSE. 65 

was one of Diana's attendant nymphs, and returning from 
hunting, sat near the Alpheus, and bathed in its waters. The 
river-god was enamored of her, and pursued her till ready to 
sink with fatigue ; she implored the aid of her mistress, who 
changed her into a fountain. The unfortunate lover imme- 
diately mingled his waters with hers. Diana opened a pas- 
sage for her under the sea, and she rose near Syracuse. The 
Alpheus joursued, and appeared near Ortygia, so that it was 
said that whatever is thrown into the Alpheus at Elis, rises 
in the Arethusa at Syracuse. There are facts and real per- 
sonages enough, however, in Syracusian history, to obviate 
the necessity of resorting to fable. And first, this place is 
indissolubly associated with the memory of the most famous 
tyrant of antiquity. It may be that his early banishment 
from his native city awakened a spirit of revenge and domi- 
nation which was the germ of that tyrannical spirit he after- 
wards so licentiously indulged. When by successful policy 
he succeeded in obtaining a command in the war then waging 
against the Carthaginians, his first step was to intrigue 
against his colleagues, and flatter those below him, until, step 
by step, he succeeded in placing himself in a position where 
he could establish that military organization which is the 
legitimate enginery of despotism. Once having assumed 
power, and triumphed over the confidence of his countrymen, 
he established the quarries and prison, the remains of which 
we have visited, and confirmed the authority he had gained 
by policy through the blighting agency of fear. His fierce 
wars with the Carthaginians prove his courage and talent as 
a soldier. Yet we know that he feared death, and was the 
victim of suspicion to a degree the most weak and cowardly. 
He would allow no one but his daughter to shave him, had 
his bed surrounded by a trench and drawbridge, and did not 
permit even his son or brother to approach him unsearched, 



66 SICILY. 

Such is the awful penalty which men pay who violate the 
sacred rights of humanity. With all his power and wealth, 
he trembled at a shadow. He felt himself cut off from hu- 
man confidence. Perhaps he feared the perpetuity of his 
title, and anticipated that future ages would know him as the 
tyrant of Syracuse. It may have been this feeling which 
awoke literary ambition in his breast, and led him, year after 
year, to send poems to the Olympic games, and rejoice so 
greatly when his tragedy gained the prize. Perhaps he hoped 
to vindicate his right to a better fame, and obliterate the 
memory of his thousand acts of capricious and cruel domina- 
tion ; or when he had tried to its full extent the value of 
mere physical authority, and proved its worthlessness, per- 
haps a higher ambition inspired him, and he longed to obtain 
a conquest over men's minds, and establish a heritage in the 
immortal kingdom of letters. If such thoughts sprang up in 
his guilty heart, they came too late, or were too feebly cher- 
ished. His ambition was a gross passion for dominion. Had 
it but aimed at a nobler object, how different would be his 
remembrance ! Had its gratification been sought in the em- 
pire of the heart, and its end been human good instead of 
destruction, the traveller, instead of turning with pity from 
these sad trophies of cruelty, would associate the name of 
Dionysius with those of Gelon and Hiero — the beneficent 
rulers of this realm." 

" There are brighter pictures," said Frazier, u in the an- 
nals of Syracuse. You remember the ruins of a tomb by the 
road-side, which we stopped to regard just before entering 
the town. It is said to be the sepulchre of Archimedes, who 
overcame a whole Roman army with his machines, and was 
the scientific genius of his age — the Franklin of his day. 
These are the characters I like to contemplate — men who 
have given a mighty impulse to science, discovered an avail- 



SYRACUSE. 67 

able truth, promulgated an universal law, and thus practi- 
cally proved themselves benefactors, compared with whom 
the greatest generals are not worthy of a thought, unless, in- 
deed, they have exhibited the noble feeling which swelled the 
heart of Marcellus, when he wept on this very spot, at the 
thought of the suffering his army were about to inflict upon 
the Syracusans. In that age, such a feeling indicates that 
he, too, with the opportunity, might have been a philanthro- 
pist." 

" And do you not remember," said Isabel, " that this is 
the scene of that beautiful illustration of human friendship 
which has been reverently handed down from remote an- 
tiquity !■ I first read it as a school-girl, with that genuine 
glow of the heart which the story of true magnanimity awa- 
kens. And shortly after the impression deepened, by seeing 
it performed on the stage, in what, to my then untutored 
judgment, seemed a style of superlative excellence. I can 
now scarcely believe I am amid the scenes of that noble 
story. Yet we can well imagine, that on the site of one of 
the villas we passed rose the mansion of Damon, whence he 
tore himself from the embraces of his wife to meet an unde- 
served and ignominious fate, and that in one of the dismal 
prisons — perhaps in the renowned Ear of Dionysius itself — 
his trusting friend confidently awaited the return of him 
whose hostage he had voluntarily become. Over yonder hill, 
perhaps, as the light of day was fading from the horizon, as 
at this hour, furiously rushed the steed which bore the father 
and the patriot to destruction, and over this calm bay, it may 
be, echoed the shout of the multitude, when, worn, haggard, 
and covered with dust, the noble victim of tyranny sprang 
from his horse at the foot of the scaffold, prepared to redeem 
his pledge. How anxiously did the eyes of the devoted 
friends watch, on that evening, the sun's decline ! How did 



68 SICILY. 

their very breath quiver with his dying rays ! What a world 
of emotions must have lived in the bosoms of both during 
those few hours of separation ! What a thrill of gladness 
must each have known, when the tyrant himself, overcome 
by so rare an example of generosity, reprieved his victim !" 

" And," said the count, " how little did he think that this 
one act of virtue would be the brightest spot in his heritage 
of fame, or that this glorious example of friendship in two 
citizens would outlive, in the admiration of men, the renown 
of all his military achievements and deep-laid policy ! How 
little did he think that the future explorer of the ruins of 
Syracuse would turn with contempt from the thought of Dio- 
nysius, at the pinnacle of his power, and delightedly conjure 
up the picture of Damon upon the fatal platform, hearing him 
in fancy exclaim — 

' I am here upon the scaffold ; look at me : 
I am standing on my throne, as proud a one 
As yon illumined mountain, where the sun 
Makes his last stand. Let him look on me too ; 
He never did behold a spectacle 
More full of natural glory. 
All Syracuse starts up upon her hills, 
And lifts her hundred thousand hands. 
She shouts — hark how she shouts ! 
Shout again ! until the mountains echo you, 
And the great sea joins in that mighty voice, 
And old Enceladus, the son of earth, 
Stirs in his mighty caverns.' "* 

When, on the ensuing morning, they came upon the car- 
riage-road, which extends only to the distance of a few miles 
from the walls, the quiet and solitude which prevailed so near 
a well- peopled city excited their observation. Reining their 
horses, they paused upon a little eminence, and gave a fare- 

* Shiel's Damon and Pythias. 



SYRACUSE. 69 

•well gaze to Syracuse. Its capacious and finely protected 
bay, its thick gray bastions, and the trees which covered the 
surrounding country, were all defined in the morning light, 
with that relievo and vividness which every object in the 
landscape assumes in the peculiarly clear atmosphere of these 
regions. 

" Few cities of antiquity," observed Frazier, " were more 
visited by illustrious men than this in the day of its glory. 
Cicero was long pro-consul here, and often alludes in his 
writings, with no ordinary interest, to his residence." 

" Yes," said the count, " and a still more illustrious per- 
sonage no less than thrice dwelt here. He, about whose 
infant mouth the bees of Hymettus clustered, and of whom 
Socrates dreamed that a cygnet, rising from an altar dedi- 
cated to Cupid, took refuge in his bosom, and then soared 
towards heaven, singing richly as he rose — presages of gifts 
and graces which after age amply fulfilled ; he who taught 
that our highest emotions are but the beamings which mem- 
ory imparts of an existence antecedent to our birth ; he who 
had faith in the beautiful idea of an original, native affinity 
between souls in which consisted love ; he who bade all men 
who would be true to themselves reverence the dreams of 
their youth ; who unenlightened by revelation, felt that the 
soul was immortal, and with a capacity of thought beyond his 
age, and a love of the spiritual which the mass of beings 
around him could not appreciate, combined with a spirit of 
divine philosophy, the truthful feeling and winning simplicity 
of childhood. Yes 3 the favorite pupil of Plato was Dion — a 
Syracusan." 

" There was too," said Isabel, " in a later age, another noble 
being, who, for three days, we are told, abode in Syracuse. 
One who cast aside the allurements which superior education 
and social advantages offered, and became the advocate of a 



70 SICILY. 

despised religion ; one whose strength of mind and natural 
gifts of intellect were only equalled by the fervor of his feel- 
ings and the decision and dignity of his character ; one who 
was enthusiastic without extravagance and zealous without 
passion ; whose tones were so deep, calm, and earnest, that 
the potentate before whom he was arraigned exclaimed that 
he too was 'almost persuaded to be a Christian ;' and then 
Paul, in what always seemed to me the most thrilling pas- 
sage of his history, standing in the midst of an inimical as- 
sembly, and in the presence of regal authority, surrounded 
by guards, and on trial for his life, raised his calm counte- 
nance to the enthroned judge, and lifting those arms which 
had so often moved in the graceful gestures of scholastic elo- 
quence, but on which fetters now rankled, in firm, impas- 
sioned, and clear accents, replied — c I would to God that not 
only thou, but also all that hear me this day, were both al- 
most and altogether such as I am, ecccept these bonds? He 
walked where Plato had before trod, and taught to the Syra- 
cusans that new religion which is now the faith of Christen- 
dom." 

" It is not a little curious," observed Prazier, " to note 
the results of that ceaseless spirit of change, which, in this 
age, if never before, is so wizard-like, that wonder itself is 
well nigh exhausted. As an instance, consider the fact, that 
the only event which for many years has given a temporary 
activity to the aspect and energies of Syracuse, was the win- 
tering of the American fleet there a few years since. It is 
thought of and reverted to with a frequency and emphasis 
which indicates how much it was considered." 

" Thus," said the count, " a few of the ships, of a people 
unknown to the ancient world, lying in that fine harbor, was 
a memorable circumstance in the annals of a city once con- 
taining twelve hundred thousand inhabitants — the object of 



SYRACUSE. 71 

innumerable wars, the seat of arts, and the mart of wealth ; 
now reduced to an inconsiderable and impoverished town, 
sought rather by the curious traveller than the votary of 
commerce, and its pavements more familiar with the slow 
tread of the mendicant than the rapid roll of luxurious equi- 
pages ; and beneath this sky, where once rose the hum of 
martial preparation, the shout of triumph, the breath of song, 
the music of eloquence, and the joyous laugh 'of prosperity, 
may be heard the rustling of the bearded grain in its summer 
fulness, or the wild moan of the ocean wind, like the requiem 
breathed by Nature over the desolate remains of human 
grandeur." 



Stomaif in f alwmn. 



He was fresh and rigorous with rest ; he was animated with hope ; he was in- 
cited by desire ; he walked swiftly forward over the valleys, and saw the hills 
gradually rising before him. Rassklas. 



THROUGH fields of lava, in which the broad, dense leaves 
of the Indian fig flourished in rank luxuriance, the trav- 
ellers, having once more left Catania, proceeded on their 
way, and were soon on the mountain-road. Nothing could 
exceed the abject wretchedness of the towns through which 
they passed, choked up with filth, and seemingly populated 
by beggars ; and the heart of Isabel was alternately sickened 
by the insignia of misery, or chilled by the scenes of discom- 
fort which met her view. To an American, who has been 
almost wholly unused to the palpable evidences of poverty, it 
is inconceivably trying to be forced to witness the haggard 
visage, the impotent limb, or the miserable covering of the 
beggar ; to hear his supplicating tones ever sounding in the 
ear, to see his eager and woe-begone eye regarding him envi- 
ously through the window of the cafe, and his attenuated 
form following him like a shadow at every turn. How de- 
pressing, then, were such, objects to the mind of Isabel, throng- 
ing as they did every village in the route. Aged men with 



JOURNEY TO PALERMO. 73 

white beards and hollow temples, women prematurely palsied, 
children half naked, and already taught to attune their half- 
articulating voices to the language of importunity ; and 
these beings not scattered here and there among the multi- 
tude, but crowding every square and murmuring beneath 
every hill-side ; creatures whom civilization, if not humanity, 
has elsewhere consigned to hospitals ; victims of disease, for 
whom, in almost every land, asylums are provided ; the 
maimed, the blind, the paralyzed, the bowed down with age, 
and the stricken with famine, all urging every feeble nerve, 
and straining every lingering art, to prolong a wretched ex- 
istence. Let no one fancy he has witnessed the lowest de- 
gree of human destiny until he has seen the mendicants of 
Sicily. 

" What a relief," said Isabel, after leaving behind them 
one of these villages, " to be again in the open country. 
What though the mountains are wild and dreary ? The 
sheep on yonder slope browse contentedly, and the sparrows 
chirp as they pick the scattered berries. There is nothing 
that speaks of human suffering, nothing to remind us of wants 
we can alleviate, and degradation apparently irretrievable." 

" There," observed Frazier, pointing to a finely situated 
convent, " behold the cause of what you lament. It is a vio- 
lation of the law of the social universe that any part of the 
human family should withdraw themselves from their allotted 
share in the toil and responsibility of life. The very money 
that supports the priests of Sicily in idleness would more 
than maintain her paupers ; the hands of the idle priesthood, 
if judiciously employed, would double, in a short time, the 
productiveness of the island, and the day that witnessed the 
annihilation of priestcraft, would give the death-blow to beg- 
gary." 

During their day's ride the most interesting objects pre- 
4 



74 SICILY. 

sented were three old castles, built at the period of the Nor- 
man conquest, and affording very good specimens of the 
gloomy architecture of the middle ages. At one of their 
evening stopping-places, after they had finished the meal, 
composed chiefly of the viands with which their Catania 
friends had loaded the carriage, Frazier, whose principle it 
was to improve every opportunity, however unpromising, to 
acquire information, began, by the help of Vittorio, to enter 
into conversation with the women of the locanda. These 
two crones were old and remarkably ugly. As Isabel looked 
upon their distorted features and rude attire, she could recall 
no figures resembling them except one or two she had seen 
in America personate the witches in Macbeth. Her uncle's 
attempt to extract a grain or two of knowledge about the 
crops proved vain, as there was but one topic upon which 
they seemed inclined to enlarge, and this was the miracles of 
the patron saint of their village. Frazier had not the pa- 
tience to listen to their stories ; but Isabel, to whom every 
chapter in the volume of human experience was interesting, 
was pleased to avail herself of their kind interpreter, and 
hear the hostess's account of St. Vito. 

" His father was a Turk, excellenza^ and, angry at his 
conversation, threatened to boil him in oil if he did not re- 
tract. Though only thirteen years old, the boy maintained 
his faith, and when put into the cauldron received not the 
least injury. He became a saint at once, and is ever work- 
ing miracles. A neighbor of mine had a sick mule. He 
carried him into the church; he knelt before St. Vito, and 
was immediately cured. A woman of the next village was 
bitten by a mad dog, and came to pray to the saint ; but the 
people would not admit her, for fear of being infected by the 
madness : they, however, brought a piece of holy wafer from 
the saint's shrine to the gate, and gave it to her. No sooner 



JOURNEY TO PALERMO. 75 

■ 

had she eaten it, than five very small dogs jumped from her - 
mouth and fell dead in the street. 0, signora, he is a beau- 
tiful saint ; and if you will go to the church to-morrow, and 
make the -sign of the cross before him, you will go to our 
country, our most happy country — paradise." 

" But," said Isabel, amused with the old woman's ardor, 
" I think I have some guardian angel, for I came over the 
wide sea in safety." 

" That," replied the crone, u was only the grace of God, for 
in your country you have no saint." 

" Yes, we have." 

"What do you call him?" 

" It is a woman of noble countenance and majestic mien, 
called Santa Liberta." 

"Ah !" exclaimed both the old women in rapture, grin- 
ning horribly and dancing with delight ; " then you are a 
Christian." 

" I hope so," quietly replied Isabel, smiling at their joy. 

" Then we'll bring you a Saint Vito to kiss, and you can 
have a crucifix and some holy water in your room." 

" There's time enough to-morrow," replied she, beginning 
to be alarmed at the penances they might inflict. " It is time 
to retire." 

" Good night," said the count ; a I commend you to the 
care of your true patron, St. Isabel." 

And in thus canonizing her name, he had a deeper mean- 
ing than is often contained in the language of compliment. 
He referred to that self-dependence, that trust in individual 
mind and energy, that confidence in the native and personal 
power of the soul, characteristic of northern nations, and than 
which there is no greater mystery of character to a southern 
European. 

When the traveller's route lies through a region of no 



76 SICILY. 

peculiar interest or beauty, the prevalence of mountains, 
while it augments the toil, greatly lessens the ennui of his 
journey. The wild, sweeping curves of the hills bring him 
continually in view of new prospects. Now he ascends a 
steep elevation, and thence beholds, far and wide, others of 
various forms and altitude rising above him ; now an abrupt 
and curiously-shaped cliff meets his eye, and, anon, a fine 
green valley suddenly breaks upon his sight. Here is a nat- 
ural amphitheatre, there a rocky precipice ; and this chang- 
ing scenery is ever arrayed in the light and shade, the mists 
and clearness, which vary the aspect of the mountains. Our 
little party realized this, perhaps unconsciously, as they ad- 
vanced on their course. The motion of a carriage amid the 
hills induces a meditative, mood which is unfavorable to con- 
versation ; and as the coach wound up and down the dreary 
ranges, beneath a gloomy sky, they yielded to this influence, 
and were quite lost in their individual reflections. Some- 
times for miles the solitude was uninterrupted save by the 
little carts of the country passing with blocks of sulphur from 
the mines, or the picturesque appearance of a shepherd lying 
on some broad hill-side, with his flock scattered before and 
his dog crouched beside him. 

" May I know your thoughts, Isabel ?" said Frazier, after 
one of their reveries had continued for an unwonted space. 

" I was thinking," she replied, " how melancholy must be 
companionless travel here, at such a season, for one inclined 
to sad fancies. Where nature looks so lonely and man so 
cheerless, the solitary traveller must have a gay spirit to go 
singing on his way." 

" And I was thinking," said her uncle, " of the scene at 
the little church at the last village where we stopped. I 
strolled in there while the horses were feeding. The damp 
floor was covered with a wretched-looking set of kneeling 



JOURNEY TO PALERMO. 77 

women, and behind the altar three or four fat and well- 
clad priests were carelessly chanting. I was thinking how 
powerful is superstition, since a carved railing and a few 
words of Latin can thus cheat human beings into the surren- 
der of their highest rights. " 

" And I was thinking," said Vittorio, pointing to several 
large crows that were cleaving the air above them, "how 
times change, but principles live. Centuries ago, perhaps on 
this very spot, the flight of these birds was watched as the 
intimation of destiny. Now they soar unregarded, save by 
the jealous husbandman, while the same feeling of our nature 
which then caused them to be regarded as ominous, is still 
abused by the professors of a purer faith for like purposes of 
selfish aggrandizement. " 

Nearly all the towns on the way appeared crowning some 
lofty height, and presenting very interesting objects viewed 
from a distance. One of the best of these the count pointed 
out to Isabel, at an early stage of their journey, as the birth- 
place of Diodorus Siculus, the historian ; and on a mild after- 
noon he called her attention to the fields they were crossing. 

" These plains," said he, " constitute the country, which, 
according to the ancient writers, was under the peculiar care 
of Ceres. Here Agriculture was born ; and even now you 
see these fields are covered with newly-sprouted grain. You 
remember the classic legend. Proserpine, it seems, like many 
maidens, had a strange fancy for solitary rambling, and while 
culling a nosegay here was surprised by Pluto, who came up 
through a lake, and carried off to the infernal dominions the 
lovely daughter of Ceres. Her poor mother found her girdle 
on a fountain, and, disconsolate, sought her everywhere. 
Arethusa at length informed her of the abiding place of Pros- 
erpine. She appealed to Jupiter for her release, and the 
father of the gods promised her return provided she had not 



78 SICILY. 

eaten. But unhappily the unfortunate damsel had devoured 
seven seeds of a pomegranate in the Elysian fields. As usual 
in the case of clandestine affairs, a compromise was effected. 
She was to remain one half of the year with Pluto, and the 
other with her mother. She presided over death, and it was 
fabled that no one could die if she or her ministers did not 
sever a lock of hair from the head of the expiring mortal. 
Glance over this landscape, for it is 

c That fair field 
Of Enna, where Proserpine, gathering flowers 
Herself a fairer flower, by gloomy Lis 
Was gathered, which cost Ceres all that pain 
To seek her through the world. 5 * 

In summer the untilled land around us is enamelled with 
floral beauty. Castro Giovanni, which rises so nobly on the 
hill to the left, was the ancient Enna, and the favorite abode 
of Ceres. It is said to stand in the very centre of the island. " 
Many an hour of their weary ride was beguiled by such 
allusions to ancient times which the various places on the 
road suggested. Everywhere the tokens of Roger's dominion 
were visible. The lofty sites of the towns were strikingly in- 
dicative of the period of their foundation — an era when the 
secure fortification of cities was indispensably necessary, es- 
pecially in an island continually exposed to the invasion of 
the Corsairs. It was not difficult at times to imagine that, 
in the marked features of the people, starting, as it were, 
from the shaggy hoods of their brown cloaks, was discernible 
something of the acuteness and fire of their Greek progeni- 
tors. Some portions of the highway, composed of argillaceous 
earth, were passed with difficulty, from the inundation of re- 
cent rains ; and one evening, when near the end of their 
journey, it was found necessary to stop for the night at a 

* Paradise Regained. 



JOURNEY TO PALERMO. 79 

locanda in the campagna. On entering the house, Isabel, 
fatigued as she was, paused to observe a pictorial effect 
worthy of the pencil of Murillo. Leaning against the doorway 
of the inner room stood a girl, of apparently fifteen, shading 
the lamp with her hand in order to obtain a better view of 
the strangers. Its rays were thus cast up upon a face more 
bright and expressive than any which she had seen in Sicily. 
But what chiefly rivetted her gaze were the eyes of the dam- 
sel — so black, clear, and expressive, as almost to fascinate 
while they surprised the beholder. 

" Did you remark the face of that young girl ?" inquired 
Isabel of her uncle when they were seated at supper. 

" Yes," he replied, " and could not but think what a 
treasure to a city belle would be her magnificent eyes and 
snowy teeth." 

tt By nature," observed the count, " that maiden is endowed 
with an intelligent mind ; you can read it in those flashing 
orbs. By nature she is gifted with an amiable disposition ; 
you can perceive it in her good-humored smile. What an 
ornament to society might not education make her ! And 
yet, such is the seeming waywardness of fate, this being, thus 
capable of exerting an extensive and happy influence, will 
live and die more like a vegetable than a human creature, 
her powers cramped by ignorance and overshadowed by su- 
perstition. The exalted distinction of your country is, that 
there is a fair field for the gifted ; whether peasants or citi- 
zens, they can freely exert their prerogatives, for the light 
of knowledge and the atmosphere of freedom is around them 
all. This poor girl has no more opportunity to do justice to 
herself, than the pearl in the ocean depths to display its rich- 
ness, or the diamond in its rocky bed to exhibit its brilliancy." 

" Yet it is from such truths," replied Isabel, " that many 
delight to draw the inference of a future and less-bounded 



80 SICILY. 

being. The endowments of a human soul, though latent 
throughout life, become not in consequence extinct. The 
pearl or the diamond may repose for ages in obscurity, or be 
dissolved into their pristine elements, but spiritual attributes, 
if once created, live on forever, and in some epoch of their 
existence must, I would fain believe, shine forth in the glory 
ordained them." 

On the following day they crossed the narrow but swollen 
river which anciently formed the boundary between the 
Greeks and Carthaginians ; on the next passed the celebra- 
ted battle-ground of Rugiero, and soon after came in sight 
of the sea. Isabel's heart expanded at the view of that ele- 
ment which connected her with her country. It was dearly 
familiar to her eye. The carriage turned an angle of the 
road, and directly before them rose the abrupt promontory 
of Monte Pelegrino, the telegraph rising distinctly from its 
summit, while on the plain below appeared the city of Paler- 
mo, environed by olive-groves on the one side, and the Medi- 
terranean on the other. 

Whether the metropolis which greets the eye of the trav- 
eller be an inland city, or reared on the borders of the deep, 
let him mark well its distant aspect. Whether Genoa rise 
like an amphitheatre of palaces and orange groves to his sea- 
worn eye, or Florence repose amid its olive-clad hills beneath 
his entranced gaze ; whether it be the swelling dome of St. 
Peter's, or the oriental cupola of St. Mark's, which crowns 
the prospect, let him mark well its distant aspect ; let him 
patiently trace every line of the landscape ; let him watch 
the sunlight and shade as they alternately play upon the edi- 
fices and the verdure, the heaVy wall and the light-springing 
tower ; let him earnestly ponder the scene, even as he dwelt 
upon the last-fading landscape of his native land ; let him 
hoard up the associations of the novel spectacle, and feel, 



JOURNEY TO PALERMO, 81 

from a distant position, the inspiration of the renowned locali- 
ty — for when he has once plunged into the narrow thorough- 
fares, and mingled with the motley crowds within the circle 
of the fairy scene, how much of the romance it awakens will 
be rudely dispelled ! how many of its bright suggestions will 
be coldly overshadowed ! But Isabel gazed upon Palermo 
not only with the curiosity of a traveller and the interest of 
an enthusiast; she looked long and earnestly upon its dense 
buildings and numerous domes, as if she would ask the fair 
capital if within its wide walls was the father she sought. 



€ty Capital. 

To see the wonders of the world abroad. 

Two Gentlemen of Verona. 

THE Cassaro of Palermo presents the usual scene of min- 
gled pomp and poverty observable in the main street of 
every European city. To one whose eye has been familiar 
with the red bricks and slated roofs, the green blinds and 
cheerful portals of the American dwellings, such thorough- 
fares are rife with novelty. He has been accustomed to the 
click of the mason's trowel, and the hasty greetings of hur- 
rying pedestrians, eager to reach the scene of traffic or the 
sanctuary of home. All around him has worn an aspect of 
freshness ; everything has been symbolical of newDess and 
growth. How different the view now presented ! The high 
stone walls of the edifices throw a gloomy shade over the 
broad flags. There is the gay uniform of the soldier and the 
dark robe of the priest. At his side the mendicant urges his 
petition. Near yonder shrine a kneeling peasant prays. In 
the centre of the street a richly-dressed cavalier displays his 
exquisite horsemanship. Against the adjacent palace wall a 
poorly-clad old man urges his donkey, whose slender propor- 
tions arc almost hidden beneath a towering load of vegetables. 



THE CAPITAL. 83 

Id the cafe opposite, groups are composedly discussing the 
merits of the new prima donna ; and near the door a knot 
of porters are vociferously disputing about the division of a 
penny. This dazzling equipage is the carriage of the arch- 
bishop ; that stripling, with sheepskin hose, is driving his 
goats into a yard to milk them, for the table of some English 
resident who can afford the luxury. These half-naked boys 
are gambling away, on the sunny curb-stone, the few grains 
which some passer-by has thrown them in charity : the other 
cluster of untidy women are ridding each other's heads of 
vermin — an incessant and conspicuous employment. From 
the overhanging balconies flaunts the wet linen hung out to 
dry, and the venders, with baskets of fish, pulse, and herbs, 
dexterously wend their way through the vehicles and loun- 
gers, and announce their commodities above the hum and 
shouts of the crowd. A file of soldiers, awkwardly shrouded 
in loose gray coats, sternly conduct a band of miserable 
prisoners chained together : and a Capuchin friar, with bare 
head, long beard, and enormous sack, morosely glides by, in 
search of alms for the expectant poor. 

Through this heterogeneous assemblage, as Frazier's car- 
riage was one day passing, Vittorio asked them to observe a 
building of unusual extent. 

" This is one of the two remaining establishments," said 
he, " formerly possessed in Palermo by that once wealthy and 
powerful community — the Jesuits. The broad airy court of 
the college is surrounded by spacious corridors, conducting to 
chambers where instruction is gratuitously given in the various 
branches of literature and science. This society is one of the 
few truly useful fraternities of priests existing in Sicily. 
They are the ministers of education, and engage in their mis- 
sion with a zeal and an interest worthy of the cause." 

"It is remarkable," said Frazier, "how that intriguing 



84 SICILY. 

association, whose influence was once so widely felt, has 
dwindled into insignificance. Who would imagine, that in 
those quiet-looking young men promenading in the yard, we 
see members of that sect whom we read of as the secret 
devotees of ambition in the courts of princes." 

" An incident occurred at their institution not long since," 
said Vittorio, " which would indicate that they are still not 
deficient in cunning. One of their number, who acted as 
treasurer, embezzled a sum of money, and gave it as a dowry 
to his sister on her marriage. As he had entered the society 
quite poor, when the rumor of this generous donation reached 
the ears of the brethren, they held a council, and having no 
doubt of the fraud, ordered him into their presence, with the 
determination to banish him from the college. Upon being 
asked if he had presented his sister with the specified sum, 
he replied affirmatively, and when questioned as to the source 
of this sudden wealth, answered, quite unabashed, that he had 
taken it from the common fund. ' For,' he added, ' is not our 
creed that we are all bound together by the tie of Christian 
fellowship, and are obligated, in weal and woe, to afford mu- 
tual aid ? I took the gold, and appropriated it as a dowry 
for our sister in the faith, in accordance with those principles 
of charity and love which we profess.' The sincerity of the 
delinquent's manner, with the force of his arguments, sealed 
the lips of the council, and he was acquitted." 

At no great distance are Quartro Cantoni, where the two 
principal streets of the metropolis intersect each other at rigln, 
angles, and whence one can gaze through the long and crowded 
vistas to the four gates. Upon the huge dark corners of the 
adjacent palaces are hung the theatre advertisements, and be- 
low several fountains fall into old marble basins. No one 
can pause at this spot without feeling that he is in the very 
centre of a populous city. Beyond, and separated from the 



THE CAPITAL. 85 

street by a spacious square, is the cathedral. Its interior is 
wanting in effect from the lightness which distinguishes and 
deforms the churches of the island. After regarding the clus- 
ter of sarcophagi which contains the ashes of the Sicilian 
sovereigns, the travellers passed on, and entered a chaste 
little chapel on the right of the main altar. 

" These basso-relievos," said the count, " are the work of 
Gaggini. The finest represents the angel of the Lord driving 
away War, Famine, and Pestilence — the enemies of mankind 
— from Palermo, at the intercession of St. Rosalia, whom 
you see kneeling at the feet of Jesus, and smiling at the suc- 
cess of her petition. That circular portrait over the altar is 
a representation of the fair saint, and beneath are preserved, 
in a box of silver, studded with jewels, her mortal remains. 
The tradition is, that ages ago, Rosalia, the daughter of a 
wealthy and noble house, turned aside from the allurements 
of pleasure and youth, and retired to the bleak summit of 
Mount Pelegrino, to give her life to prayer. Centuries of 
change rolled away, and the story of the lovely anchorite was 
lost in obscurity : when the plague visited Palermo. At the 
very height of its ravages, a poor man of the city dreamed 
that an angel appeared to him in the form of St. Rosalia, di- 
recting him to tell the archbishop to seek on the mountain, 
beneath her ancient retreat, for her bones, and bear them in 
solemn procession through the streets, when he was assured 
the pestilence would instantly cease. This was done amid 
much pomp and solemnity, and the promised miracle wrought. 
The senate immediately declared St. Rosalia the protectress 
of Palermo, and ever since she has been worshipped as their 
patron saint. For five days in July a feast is held in celebra- 
tion of this event, exceeding in magnificence every similar 
festival. Fireworks, social gayety, triumphal processions, illu- 
minations, and music, are the uninterrupted announcements 



86 SICILY. 

of these greatest of Palermitan holidays; and the flower- 
decked car of the saint, drawn hj fifty oxen covered with 
garlands, moves gayly along the thronged Toledo. " 

At a short distance from the cathedral is the royal palace, 
where an ancient chapel, and one of the finest observatories 
in Europe, interested the strangers. Returning, Vittorio 
bade them note the building now devoted to the tribunals in 
the Piazza Marina. It is a Saracenic structure, formerly 
the seat of the inquisition, and bears interesting evidences of 
the date of its erection. The best monument, however, of 
this period of Sicilian history, an epoch involved in great ob- 
scurity, is a large fabric at Olivuza, near the city, called the 
ziza, and supposed to have been an emir's residence. 

The contrasts, however, between the Old and New World 
are not confined to the results of Art. Around the congre- 
gated dwellings of both hemispheres is spread the varied 
scenery of Nature ; and the sojourner, if he be not an invete- 
rate worldling, has been wont to repair thither for solace and 
refreshment. Yet how different are the emblems of her be- 
nignant presence from those to which he has been accustomed ! 
At home, he gazed upon the flowing stream, whose greatest 
charm is its bright hue and crystal clearness ; in this distant 
region he roams beside a turbid river, only attractive from 
the events of which it has been the scene, or the classic 
legend which arrays it in fictitious glory. At home, his eye 
rested upon cottages of wood, with orchards beside them, 
vegetable gardens in the rear, and hard-by the long well-pole 
poised in the air ; now he beholds the peasant's cottage of 
stone, and the olive, aloe, Indian fig, or grape-vine, constitute 
the verdure around it. There the little belfry of the village 
school rose conspicuous ; here the open shrine of some local 
saint. There the forest outspread in wild majesty ; here the 
campagna stretches in peaceful undulations. There the 



THE CAPITAL. 87 

chirp of the cricket announced the close of day; here the 
tinkling bell of the returning mules, and Ave Maria stealing 
on the breeze usher in the evening. There many an unin- 
vaded haunt repays the wanderer with romantic dreams ; 
here the spell of some ruined temple entrances his fancy with 
hours of retrospective musing. Still Nature's votary feels 
that the same gentle companionship is with him, and recog- 
nizes the invisible spirit of the universe endeared by commu- 
nion in another land ; for there is a well-known voice with 
which she greets her children in every clime. 

One of the most pleasing characteristics of the Sicilian 
capital is the beauty of its environs. It is a curious fact, 
that one of the most conspicuous of the mountains which en- 
viron the city is strikingly similar to Vesuvius ; while Mount 
Pelegrino, from one point of view, presents the same form and 
general aspect as the rock of Gibraltar. Many happy hours, 
when the state of elements was auspicious, were passed by 
Frazier, his niece, and their friend, in rides and walks amid 
the quiet and fertile country about Palermo. Sometimes on 
horseback they ascended to Monreale, a picturesque town 
about four miles from the city, where the Norman kings are 
buried. The old church here situated was built by William 
I., and is lined with mosaics, which serve admirably to awaken 
the associations of that primitive era after the establishment 
of Christianity, when the zeal of her advocates was expended 
upon gorgeous temples and elaborate ornaments. Still higher, 
a rich convent of Benedictines affords another fine point of 
view. When the visitor had satisfied his curiosity in noting 
the marble and alabaster, the literary rareties and antique 
relics which enrich this establishment, tenanted, like the one 
at Catania, exclusively by noblemen ; when his gaze is weary 
with regarding the paintings of Monrealese — the best of 
Sicilian artists — which decorate its walls ; he can survey the 



88 SICILY. 

broad and verdant plain, the distant city, and its sea-bright 
boundary, spread out in rich contrast below. A still more 
favorite observatory, nearer the metropolis, is the site of an 
old asylum of the followers of St. Francis — the monastery of 
Maria di Gresri, on the side of the opposite mountain. From 
the path constructed along the cliff, one can look forth upon 
this picture, pausing at will to mark its varying features as 
he ascends the umbrageous hill-side. Indeed the public and 
private edifices which command views of this unrivalled 
scene, are numerous enough to satisfy the taste of the most 
fastidious admirer of the picturesque ; and no more delight- 
ful excursion can be imagined than the circuit of the entire 
plain on a fine day. It is adorned by the villas of many noble 
families, which are surrounded with enclosures well stocked 
with every description of tree, shrub, and flower. The beau- 
tiful effect of these gardens is enhanced by statues, whose 
white hue is relieved by the evergreen around their pedestals, 
and many ingenious devices to amuse and surprise the visitor. 
One of these domains, erected by the late king, is arranged 
in the Chinese style. 

How peace-inspiring seemed that. valley to the eye of 
Isabel, reposing with its grain fields and olive orchards, many 
of them planted by the Saracens, its orange clusters and cy- 
presses, its villas and almond-trees, with the mountains en- 
circling, like majestic sentinels, its fertile precincts, the 
domes and roofs of Palermo rising time-hallowed from amid 
its green beauty, and beyond all, the wide and sparkling sea ! 
In early spring, all there is perfume and song, and not even 
when the snow lies in heavy masses upon the hill-tops, does 
it cease to cheer the sight with its evergreen garniture. 

" Let us pause," said Vittorio, one day, when they had 
arrived at a solitary and elevated part of the rocky environ- 
ment. They stood still and looked forth upon the vale. 



THE CAPITAL. 89 

" The first impression, I think," continued he, " is that of 
abundance. We do not merely see, we feel, as it were, the 
luxuriance of the earth. A new sense of nature's productive- 
ness is borne to the mind, as it contemplates such verdure 
and plenty. But while we gaze, another and higher feeling 
possesses us. The tranquillity of the landscape soothes every 
common passion into quietness, and lures all care-born rest- 
lessness to sleep. Something of the calm happiness of pri- 
meval existence seems to breathe from so Eden-like a 
prospect ; and from the lulled waters of the spirit, as the 
ancients fabled of the birth of beauty, emerges the brightest 
creation of thought, the fairest offspring of emotion ; — a sen- 
timent of confidence in our origin and destiny, a speechless 
gratitude, an undefined hope, a self-content, alike inexplicable 
and blessed. Is it that we imbibe the language of the uni- 
verse, or are exhilarated by her music ? Is it that we momen- 
tarily lose the weight of life's burden, or forget in so cheering 
a presence, that the earth is not a garden ?" 

" It is, perhaps," replied Isabel, " that we realize anew the 
goodness of the Creator, and thus renew our faith in his pa- 
ternity. The world often seconds the chill and dark creed 
of the skeptic, while Nature ever encourages the hopes of the 
heart. "We see the beauty lavished upon the physical uni- 
verse, and comes there not thence an assurance that if the 
domain of matter is thus cared for and enriched, the quench- 
less, living spirit is destined to renewal, progression, and hap- 
piness?" 

From the upper end of the Marina, if the equestrian in- 
clines to the right, he comes out upon a broad, level space, 
called the plain of Erasmus. A group of bare-legged fisher- 
men, with their nets spread out for repair upon the green- 
sward, two or three cord-weavers, or a knot of the country 
guards lounging in the noon-tide sun, appeared scattered over 



90 SICILY. 

this field; after crossing which, one passes a pretty little 
church, where the victims of the law are buried, and soon 
arrives at the old Saracenic bridge that spans the Oreto. 
This river, now shrunk to the dimensions of a mere brook, 
constituted the scene of a noted galley combat which is said 
to have occurred near Monreale. Its wide bed and high 
embankments are still easily traced. The aspect of this 
vicinity is rendered picturesque by masses of broken wall, 
half-covered with vegetation, and several tall, square water 
pillars wreathed with thick hanging weeds. 

It was a mild and autumn-like day, and already long past 
noon, when the travellers, returning from a sequestered road, 
along which their horses had been slowly pacing for a consid- 
erable time, found themselves again in this somewhat familiar 
spot. There was a freshness as well as solemnity in the ap- 
pearance of a cypress grove which rose before them ; and 
they readily turned into the almost deserted way, left their 
steeds at the gate, and entered the Campo Santo. As they 
did so, two men, bearing a black sedan-chair — the bier of the 
lower orders — appeared, proceeding slowly up the grassy 
pathway. No other moving object disturbed the profound 
repose of the burial-place, save the swaying tops of the gloomy 
trees, and the nodding of some spire of herbage which had 
shot up higher than its fellows. Rows of square flag-stones 
intersected the ground at equal distances, denoting the huge 
pits into which the naked corpses are promiscuously thrown, 
with as little ceremony, and less feeling, perhaps, than the 
fish-packers of the neighboring coast manifest in arranging 
their prey. A low, rude cross, placed near one of the reser- 
voirs, indicated that it was unsealed for the day's interments, 
if so rude a disposition of the dead merits the name. The 
strangers involuntarily paused. They had been inhaling the 
balmy and living breath of nature ; the hum of a populous 



THE CAPITAL. 91 

city had scarcely died away upon their ears ; their conversa- 
tion had been lively and hopeful, for few can resist the exhil- 
aratiog influence of a ride on horseback beneath a lovely sky, 
and in sight of evergreen foliage and blue-waving hills ; and 
now they were in the silent precincts of a grave-yard, sur- 
rounded by the emblems of death. An old and miserably 
clad friar emerged from the building which bounds the oppo- 
site side of the cemetery, and approaching the group, offered 
to display the wonders of the establishment, with as much 
complacency as the cicerone of a gallery of art or continental 
museum would have manifested. To one who travels not so 
much to acquire miscellaneous information as to realize truth ; 
not with a view to court novelty, but to awaken thought ; not 
merely to be amused, but enjoy associations and feast imagi- 
nation ; to one, in a word, who seeks in foreign scenes con- 
genial mental excitement, there is nothing more vexatious 
than the officiousness, intrusion, and affected jargon of those 
who act as guides and showmen about the interesting locali- 
ties of Europe. Isabel shuddered as she beheld this veteran 
dweller among the dead, and marked the indifference to 
scenes of mortality which familiarity had induced. Frazier 
followed the monk, while Isabel and the count walked to and 
fro in an area of the sunny enclosure. 

" This," said he, " is the burial-place of the poorer classes. 
Their ideas of doing honor to the dead are quite peculiar. 
Those who have the means engage the old friar and his assis- 
tants to preserve the embalmed bodies or skeletons of their 
friends, which are placed in hideous array, some of them 
dressed out in the gayest dresses, in the lower chambers of 
that edifice. The poor relatives of the deceased yearly re- 
new the vesture and ornaments of the withered bodies, deem- 
ing this a testimony of their remembrance. What a dismal 
manner of manifesting the sentiment ! Yet how affecting is 



92 SICILY. 

this clinging to the mere casket of life ! How does it pro- 
claim the earnestness with which the most unenlightened re- 
pel the thought of annihilation ! But does not such attach- 
ment to the mortal remains evince how dimly the idea of 
immortality has dawned upon the minds of these ignorant 
people % Is it not another proof of the unspiritual tendency 
of their religion, as popularly believed? Intelligent men 
often ridicule what they call the visionary tenets of some of 
the more refined sects — but what can obviate the appalling 
impression that death and decay awaken, but a faith, not 
merely general, but elaborately constructed from our inmost 
experience, and vivified by revelation — a faith that recognizes 
an existence perfectly independent of physical life — a faith 
that habitually regards the tides of thought and love as al- 
ready merged in the ocean of eternity, though now connected 
by a narrow and ever evaporating stream with the river of 
Time ?" 

" Still," said Isabel, " it is not every one who can best 
keep alive the glorious truth of an after-existence, by thus 
maintaining a sense of the distinctness of our two lives. 
With many they are too much interwoven ; and with all the 
inner and the outer world, more or less commingle. There- 
fore it is, I think, that the cemetery should be hallowed by 
nature, and rendered eloquent by art. It seems to me that 
many of the customs of Europe, in regard to the dead, evi- 
dence anything but Christian civilization, and I turn with 
pleasure and gratitude from this horrid receptacle, to the 
picture my memory affords of the beautiful cemetery at New 
Haven, and the quiet and soothing precinct of Mount Au- 
burn, where naught meets the eye but chaste marble memo- 
rials, the refreshing hue of the greenwood, and the flowers 
which enamel the graves." 

" That is happy," said the count. " Such scenes should 



THE CAPITAL. 93 

not remind us of the earthly remains, but of the enfranchised 
spirit. Who would linger over the clay, when the friend it 
impersonated has vanished ? An accustomed walk or a fa- 
vorite book is more emblematical of the departed than his 
senseless frame ; for the first ministered to his deathless self 
— with the last his connection has utterly ceased. To pre- 
serve and cherish so wretched a memorial, so earth-born and 
material a symbol, is as soulless as for the prisoner to fix his 
eye upon the dim walls of his dungeon, when a star beams 
radiantly through his cold grate, as if to call his gaze heaven- 
ward." 



But when it happens that of two suro evils 

One must be taken, where the heart not wholly 

Brings itself back from out the strife of duties, 

Then 'tis a blessing to have no election. Wallenstein. 

THE prevalence of monastic institutions is one of the most 
striking features of Sicily. Originated during the do- 
minion of the Spaniards, like ill weeds they have taken deep 
root, and quite overrun the verdant island. In the country 
they occupy the most desirable sites, and in almost every 
street of the capital the high gratings of the nunneries appear 
protruding from their lofty walls. Thousands of the fairest 
daughters of the land are immured within these spacious asy- 
lums. Among such a multitude, some doubtless are devoted 
to that religious meditation which is the professed object of 
their seclusion ; but the majority manifest as lively an inter- 
est in the world they have renounced as the busiest of its 
denizens. By means of their friends they are constantly in- 
formed of the events of the day, and manage to maintain a 
surprising acquaintance with the intrigues and doings of the 
metropolis. Indeed, a half-hour's chat with one of these fair 
recluses, is said to subserve the purposes of the gossip better 
than a gazette, of which there is quite a dearth. And in re- 



THE NOVITIATE. 95 

turn for the sweet scandal the wicked world provides them, 
they are constantly distributing presents of comfits. By this 
demi-intercourse with their fellow-beings, and in attending to 
their share of the duty and ceremonial of the house, their 
hours glide by. and every year adds to their number. Isabel 
availed herself of an occasion which offered to witness the 
rite by which a novitiate was entered upon. The daughter 
of a merchant with whom Frazier was acquainted being about 
to perform tnese vows, he invited the strangers to attend the 
function. 

It was the last day of the month. As the carriage rolled 
over the fiat pavements through the crowded Toledo, lights 
gleaming from the cafes and shops, fell on groups of mechan- 
ics toiling by the wide thresholds, shelves of confectionery 
thrust forth to tempt the passengers, and now and then re- 
vealed a set of grotesquely clad buffoons — the light-hearted 
celebrators of the carnival, surrounded by a laughing mob. 
Now they passed an elegant equipage, with its complement 
of dashing footmen ; and now the white robes of a Dominican 
friar fluttered by. One moment Isabel admired the dexter- 
ity of the coachmen as they drove furiously on, the wheels 
of their vehicles almost in contact ; another gazed upon a 
fountain, murmuring amid its old sculptured ornaments and 
weed-grown inscriptions ; and the next instant they turned 
into another street — dark and silent but for the clear echo 
of their horses' feet as they struck the flag-stones. Riding 
rapidly through the streets of an European city produces in 
the stranger's mind a novel excitement. One thought pre- 
dominated in the mind of Isabel. She remembered that the 
insignia of life, of active and cheerful existence, whose inspi- 
ration she then felt, was about to be abandoned by her whose 
vows she was soon to hear. She endeavored to imagine her 
own feelings if such were her lot. 



96 SICILY. 

" It is not love of what is called the world" — (thus she 
mused) — " that would make such an hour dismal to me. I 
am not indissolubly wedded to the pursuit of pleasure. Long 
since I have realized the vanity of the petty triumphs sought 
in artificial society. I should mourn to quit life because it 
is the arena of experience, the sphere of duty, the lot of my 
race. I would not, if I could, escape the common destiny of 
a human beiug. I would share in the toil, anxiety, and suf- 
fering — I would take part in the higher enjoyments — I would 
have my inheritance in the kingdom of thought and affection, 
because it is human. A mightier will than mine placed me 
here ; a holier agency than that of accident creates the cir- 
cumstances of life. Let the afflictions, the temptations, the 
cares of being be endured ; let me be free to commune with 
nature and society ; let me courageously fulfil my destiny ; 
and for the truth that shall guide and protect me, let me trust 
to the paternity of God." 

The strain of her meditations was abruptly broken by 
their arrival at the convent. They entered the parlatorio, 
or conversation-room. It was already half filled with com- 
pany, who, to judge by their gay dresses, and the occasional 
laughter and lively discourse with which they were beguiling 
the time, one would suppose had assembled for some purpose 
of glad festivity. At the head of the room, surrounded by 
the ladies of her family, and the companions of her youth, 
sat the maiden on whose account they had assembled. She 
was tall, and of that form which, at a glance, we are apt to 
denominate genteel. A dress of white satin, richly decorated 
with lace, showed to the best advantage her fine, intelligent 
face, dark eyes shaded with long black lashes, and head of 
hair, amid the ebon masses of which clusters of diamonds 
glittered beneath a knot of snow-white ostrich feathers that 
nodded above, and gave to the tout ensemble a queen-liko 



THE NOVITIATE. 97 

aspect. This impression was enhanced by the air and man- 
ner of the lady. Occasionally turning to a party of nuns who 
clustered about the open door which formed the limits of 
their asylum, she replied to their words of encouragement 
with an affable dignity. Sometimes addressing her mother, 
who sat beside her, she seemed to perform the same kind 
office of consolation to her. At the entrance of one of the 
friends whose society had enlivened, with girlish playfulness, 
many an hour of her young life, she rose, and gracefully, 
often even joyously, saluted her, as if she were receiving the 
gratulations of a bride. Sometimes she caressed her little 
brother, a pretty boy of five or six, apparently delighted at 
the brilliant costume of his lovely sister : at others, although 
but momentarily, she would sit silently looking around her, 
as if called for the first time to play the part of an enter- 
tainer, and as yet unskilled in disguising the weariness which 
too often renders that character one of the most onerous in 
the whole range of social requisitions. A blithe tone, pleas- 
ant, talkative mood, and happy smile, distinguished her from 
the other young ladies upon whose faces seriousness would 
oftener rest, and glances of thoughtful regret not unfrequent- 
ly be cast towards their smiling friend. Isabel watched the 
scene, and recalled the beautiful simile which compares an 
unconscious sufferer to the sacrificial victim that wears proud- 
ly and playfully nibbles the flowery garlands, that to all else 
are emblems of its approaching fate. Ices and sweetmeats 
were distributed. The buzz of conversation rose and fell. 
There were pleasant jests and calm discussions among the 
party, and as little apparent commiseration as the ancient 
assemblies at the gladiatorial combats were wont to show for 
the beings whose death was to be barbarously consummated 
for their amusement. Isabel was separated from her friends, 
and found herself near some acquaintances with whom she 



98 SICILY. 

had little sympathy; and after the ordinary greetings wero 
interchanged, was at liberty to entertain herself with her own 
thoughts. These were soon entirely engrossed in attempting 
to conjecture the motives and present feelings of the novi- 
tiate. She was speeeily convinced that there was a deep 
sentiment veiled by the blitheness of her manner; an eye and 
a contour so speakingly intelligent, she was convinced, apper- 
tained to a mind that could pierce the shadows of gross su- 
perstition, and a heart with a capacity of feeling which had, 
or would ere long, occasion its possessor intense suffering. 
Thus her sympathy was earnestly excited; nor could she 
relieve the longing she felt to interfere with the proposed 
vows, till she was assured that after a year's trial the novice 
would be at liberty to leave the convent. This consideration, 
however, would not have greatly solaced Isabel had she been 
aware of the means assiduously used to rivet the chain of 
motives which first allure the young to make trial of conven- 
tual life. From the par latorio the company adjourned to 
the church, which was brilliantly lighted for the ceremony. 
Isabel, as a stranger, was provided with a place near the 
grate, about which a dense crowd soon collected. The priest 
at the main altar commenced a mass. An orchestra, stationed 
in a high gallery, began a sacred strain, and turning to the 
chapel she saw a procession of the sisterhood approaching, 
bearing lighted tapers, and in the midst walked the novice. 
They encircled a little platform, placed just within the lattice, 
on which sat the abbess and her assistants, and at the feet 
of the former kneeled the devoted maiden. She was still 
apparelled in her ball-room attire, but a crown of flowers was 
substituted for the jewels and plumes, and in her right hand 
she bore a wand of palm. At Isabel's side, in a high chair, 
covered with crimson velvet, sat the officiating priest. The 
aged mother of the institution threw back her silken cowl, 



THE NOVITIATE. 99 

drew forth and assumed her tortoise-shell spectacles, and 
opened the ritual. Isabel noted the picture as the soft ra- 
diance of the numerous lights fell on the upturned face of the 
novice and the time-withered lineaments of the abbess. In 
the one she read youth and innocence — the harmony of a con- 
fiding and undimmed nature ; in the other, the traces of ex- 
perience, the expression of command, the quiet and fixed 
features of that epoch in life when Hope's visions have melted 
away, and the listless content of subdued feeling, like the 
calm surface of a summer sea, reflects what is around, but 
stirs not in the exhausted breeze of fresh emotion. She ob- 
served the bright eye of the maiden glance kindly at the 
younger nuns ; and, as the monotonous recitative of the priest 
succeeded that of the women, on her fresh lips stole such a 
smile, as she caught the eye of the old lady, as would have 
provoked a responsive look from one more sensible to such 
an appeal or less disciplined in self-control. A lock of the 
dark hair was severed, and the silken curtain drawn. In a 
few moments it was again thrown back, and, arrayed in the 
black robe and white cape of a nun, appeared the inducted 
novice. The dress was singularly becoming — more so than 
that it had displaced. Again she kneeled, and the preacher 
commenced his exhortation. Fervently did he congratulate 
the fair girl on her choice. Eloquently did he picture the 
evils she had escaped and the blessings she had secured. 
There was sincerity in his tones ; but Isabel remembered the 
silver sweetness of voice which the novice's responses had 
betrayed, and the spell of the speaker's was lost. She turned 
to the mother, and saw the tears roll down upon the lace 
'kerchief which covered the breast whereon this lovely crea- 
ture had so often reposed. The little brother of the novitiate, 
whether offended by her new array, or touched with the so- 
lemnity of the scene, became very restless, and after many 



100 SICILY. 

vain attempts to attract his mother's attention, began to cry 
piteously, as if in remonstrance to the vows with which they 
were severing from him, perhaps forever, an indulgent and 
fond sister. His wailing was not suffered to interrupt the 
orator, who continued his discourse. The child was hurried 
from the crowd. Isabel observed, that throughout the cere- 
mony the novice ventured not a glance towards her kindred 
and friends gathered about the tressil partition ; but she saw 
her breast heave beneath the folds of her sacred habit, and 
fancied that not one of her mother's sighs escaped her ear. 
When the address was brought to a close, the nuns pressed 
forward and embraced the new member of their society. The 
company in the church slowly withdrew. Isabel followed the 
ladies to the parlatorw,- and entered just as the mother and 
daughter were embracing. A throng of congratulating friends 
encircled the novitiate. Isabel wished, for her sake, that all 
was over. But soon the maiden eagerly inquired for her 
father. He was in a distant corner of the apartment. When 
he approached, his beautiful daughter, clad, as it seemed to 
the strangers, in the habiliments of a living grave, kissed him 
affectionately. Isabel saw him whisper to the abbess, and 
doubted not it was a request to treat his child kindly. She 
thought of her own parent, and asked herself whether he 
could thus leave her to linger out a sad existence in the 
cloister. The idea chilled her very soul; and, seizing the 
proffered arm of her uncle, they hurried from the place. 

The Marina of Palermo is one of the most admirable 
promenades in Europe. By many continental travellers it is 
deemed unsurpassed. The broad, blue expanse of the bay 
rolls to the very base of the long and smoothly-paved walk ; 
a spacious and level road for carriages lies between this and 
the range of palaces and gardens which bound it on the op- 
posite side; while at both extremities the noble promon- 



THE NOVITIATE. 101 

tories, which rear themselves protectingly, and enclose the 
harbor, shield the beautiful resort and gratify the eye of the 
visitor. Thus the imposing vicinity of the finest edifices, the 
verdure and perfume of a public garden, and the cool bright 
sea, are concentrated, as it were, around this magnificent 
Marina. Those who dislike the vicinity of vehicles and 
horsemen can repair to the terrace which rises above the 
road, and extends to half the length of the drive. The con- 
tinuance of this upper walk is all that is wanting to complete 
the splendid promenade. On gala days nothing can exceed 
the cheerful and elegant aspect of this scene. Equipages, of 
every degree of richness, pass in long lines to and fro through 
the centre, and the walks appear thronged with the various 
costumes of southern Europe. And daily, at all seasons, 
about two hours after mid-day, the stranger may find it more 
or less fashionably occupied. But it is in the summer even- 
ings that the Marina of Palermo appears to the greatest ad- 
vantage, and is most generally and consciously enjoyed. 
Half the population repair thither to enjoy the sea-breeze. 
The distant mountains are robed in a greener hue ; the adja- 
cent groves are clothed in the richest tints ; the ocean coolly 
murmurs, and stretches, like a crystal plain, before the eye 
wearied with the scorching heat of these southern skies. The 
burning sun is slowly sinking in the west. Then the nobility 
seek, in their open carriages, the refreshing breeze from the 
ocean. The fat priest seats himself on one of the marble 
benches ; the soldier leans upon his musket, and raises his 
heavy cap, to catch the delicious air ; the freed child gambols 
along the terrace walk ; the languid beauty readily accepts 
the ice which her gallant proffers at the side of her landau ; 
and to stir the serenity of the scene with a congenial excite- 
ment, music, from a band stationed about the centre of the 
drive, in a temporary theatre 3 steals forth to cheer and to 



102 SICILY. 

charm the gay multitude. Such is the Marina on a summer 
night. But when Frazier and the count, obeying the sug- 
gestion of Isabel, left the carriage at one of the gates, and 
came out upon the promenade, it was almost entirely solitary. 
In the distance, the figure of a single individual might be 
seen hurrying along ; and at one or two points a knot of 
fishermen were arranging their nets. High, dark, and tower- 
ing rose the mountains, and the foliage seemed blent in one 
heavy mass. But over the face of the sea, and on the palace 
roofs, the beams of the full moon glittered ; and the foam- 
streaks shone in the mild light, as they ran, with a plaintive 
and hollow murmur, along the stones. As Isabel and her 
companions gained the walk, and felt the soothing effect of 
a promenade by the sea at so quiet an hour, they wondered 
that so few had improved the privileged time. But her mind 
was intent upon the scene she had left. The light demeanor 
of the young novitiate, the interesting expression of her face, 
the solemnity of the rite, remained vividly impressed upon 
her mind ; and she was eager in her inquiries of Vittorio aa 
to the views of the parent and the feelings of the child. 

" You must have observed me," he replied, " conversing 
with a young man in the parlatorio, who was seated near 
your uncle. That youth, more than two years since, became 
enamored of the novice. He had a small income — not, how- 
ever, sufficient to warrant his marriage unassisted by addi- 
tional means. His affection was reciprocated. The father 
of the young lady is a man of wealth. At the commence- 
ment of the suit he objected to its consummation on several 
trivial grounds. These difficulties were at length obviated ; 
but the father at last peremptorily refused to advance his 
daughter the sum requisite for her establishment. There is 
no doubt that he could have done this without any actual 
sacrifice ; but he is a man who has gained his property slowly, 



THE NOVITIATE. 103 

and, in its acquisition, has acquired that base love of wealth 
for its own sake, which too often shows itself stronger than 
those affections which are the deepest, and should be the 
most inviolate sentiments of the heart. The daughter, wea- 
ried with the disappointment and suspense of her situation, 
and despairing of any favorable change, resolved to quit the 
world." 

" This accounts," said Isabel, " for the smiling manner in 
which she went through the ceremony. It was the levity of 
hopelessness, the mock playfulness of despair." 

" And wonder not," resumed Vittorio, " that she should 
find little to interest in this world, after her prospects were 
thus blighted. She has seen only, or chiefly, the worst side 
of human nature. She has reason to believe in the universal 
reign of selfishness ; for this, society and her own kindred 
have taught her. Her passion was not a violent one. She 
sought in the cloister, not so much a refuge from disappointed 
affection as an asylum adapted to one who is indifferent to 
the world because she has nothing to hope from it." 

" The more shame to the land of her birth !" exclaimed 
Frazier, " since there was. in the circle of her experience, no 
human being whose example inspired her with an ambition to 
be useful — no one of her sex whose character and domestic 
influence suggested the idea of living for the improvement of 
others — no instance of female devotion in the path of single 
life. In America, thank Heaven ! there is scarcely a family 
where there is not a genuine sister of charity, in the shape 
of what is vulgarly called an old maid." 

Isabel smiled, and said, when they were again seated in 
the carriage, " There is, to my mind, something awful in the 
idea of so young and gifted a woman thus incarcerating her- 
, self without even the supporting motive of devotional enthu- 
siasm. Her blithe manner when kneeling in that cloistral 



104 SICILY. 

garb was more touching to me than would have been her 
tears. It spoke of a light estimation of life and its blessings, 
a want of perception of human responsibility, an utter insen- 
sibility to that spiritual destiny which can throw over the 
most objectless existence an infinite interest, and a superhu- 
man dignity. Of this not a thought seems to have dawned 
upon that maiden's mind." 

" No," said the count, " she has gone in all her loveliness 
and innocence from the home of her childhood. She has left 
the circle her presence should have gladdened — the kindred 
whose happiness should have been hers. Talents of untried 
power, love of unfathomable intensity, will be palsied by a 
round of mechanical rites and trivial occupations. Yet, neg- 
ative and blighting as I feel such a fate to be, consider how 
I am obliged to reproach my country, when I say that, in all 
probability, her life as a Catholic nun will be infinitely hap- 
pier than that of a Sicilian wife." 



The spirit culls 
Unfaded amaranth, when wild it strays 
Through the old garden-ground of boyish days. Keats. 

THE site of the Villa G-iulia, or public garden of Palermo, 
with the exception of its low and therefore somewhat hu- 
mid position, is singularly felicitous. It is separated, in its 
whole length, from the sea, only by the Marina, and as there 
are no intervening buildings, the whole extent of the bay is 
open to the eye of the wanderer through its verdant pre- 
cincts. And however warm may be the season, one can 
scarcely fail, before noon, or at sunset, to discover some shady 
recess which is freely visited by the breeze from the water. 
Adjoining this favorite retreat is the Botanical Garden, whose 
lofty palm-trees rise picturesquely to the eye, giving an as- 
pect of oriental beauty to that portion of the prospect. It 
was through this enclosure that, during the late siege, the 
troops from Naples effected their approach to the walls, and 
the rich exotics which adorned the establishment were crushed 
beneath the ruthless feet of the soldiery. The more public 
grounds of the adjacent garden once witnessed a still more 
sacrilegious scene. During the sway of the Inquisition, a 

5* 



106 SICILY. 

priest and nun were burnt alive on this spot, in the presence 
of an immense assemblage, for having declared themselves 
favored by miraculous visions. There is nothing now to re- 
mind the visitor of these or siniilar events. The noble en- 
trance of the Botanical institution conducts him into a circu- 
lar apartment, classically adorned, whence a fine vista of for- 
eign trees, and several admirably constructed stuffos, are dis- 
coverable ; and the utmost neatness, order, and beauty grat- 
ify the eye. The villa is somewhat more extensive, and is 
tastefully laid out into alleys, shaded with the interwoven 
branches of the orange-trees, and diversified with parterres 
of flowers, statues, and fountains, forming one of those quiet 
and delightful resorts which are planted, with such beautiful 
wisdom, amid the dense buildings and confined thoroughfares 
of European cities. For several hours during Sunday, in 
the spring and summer, a band, stationed about the centre 
of the garden, enliven the throng with a variety of airs ; and 
the scene, at such periods, is one of the most pleasant ima- 
ginable, as all classes of citizens are seen strolling in parties 
through the paths, clustered listlessly about the fountains, or 
conversing in groups in some retired nook of the extensive 
grounds. 

It was during one of their promenades in this favorite 
spot, on a clear, bright morning, that Count Vittorio was in- 
duced, at the earnest wish of his companions, to speak of his 
former life. The garden was almost solitary. The season 
and the spot awakened the early associations of the count ; 
and the sight of a rosy little child, setting at defiance the en- 
treaties and threats of his nurse as he shouted and gambolled 
along the walks, carried him back to the well-remembered 
days when he had sported in that very garden under similar 
surveillance. Yielding to the impulse of awakened memory, 
he imparted to his attentive and deeply interested friends a 



VITTORIO. 107 

sketch of his experience, in that spirit of confidence and free- 
dom which the breath of Nature and the spell of congenial 
companionship naturally awakens : — 

" The memory of my earliest years confirms the general 
idea that the first epoch in life, however distinguished by ex- 
uberance of feeling and earnest curiosity, is not necessarily 
the period when the leading traits of character are manifested, 
or its highest principles formed. I remember my early boy- 
hood as a period of intense pleasure, and frequent though not 
lasting disappointment. Every object and agency which ap- 
pealed to natural sentiment found an instant response in my 
heart. For several years my daily pastime consisted in gaz- 
ing from the balcony of our palace, which overlooked the 
principal street. The narrow bounds of this little gallery 
constituted the sanctum of my childhood. I ran to and fro 
over its tiled floor, and peeped through the iron-wrought bal- 
ustrade, while my mother sat at her embroidery frame near 
the open window, watching my sports. Here dawned upon 
my young mind its first notions of the world. Hour by hour 
I gazed down upon the passing crowd, and to the silent ob- 
servation of those childish days I can trace many of the opin- 
ions and prejudices of after-years. I saw a moving panorama 
of human life, and deeply sank its lessons into my mind. 
There were two classes of men, who, even at that hour, were 
the objects of my dislike, and against whom there grew up in 
my breast an inveterate antipathy, which after-experience, 
unhappily, has not tended to remove. These were soldiers 
and priests. The former I detested partly, perhaps, on ac- 
count of their stern manner, but chiefly because I saw them 
conducting the prisoners, whose fettered limbs and miserable 
appearance excited my pity. The latter awakened my abhor- 
rence from the moment that I was the witness of the over- 
bearing demeanor of one of their fraternity who visited our 



108 SICILY. 

house, and with a cold pertinacity which roused my impotent 
anger, persisted in being informed of every detail of our do- 
mestic affairs. I was especially annoyed at the number of 
these two classes which mingled in the passing crowd ; and 
when any priestly procession or regiment of soldiers entered 
the Toledo, instead of remaining at my post, I would run to 
the very extremity of the saloon, and shut my ears against 
the sound of the approaching drum or the rising chant. This 
conduct surprised my mother, and she endeavored, but with- 
out effect, to correct these prejudices, particularly that against 
the priests ; for being herself a strict Catholic, she considered 
the feeling I manifested toward the professed ministers of the 
faith as fraught with danger. Her apprehensions, however, 
were much lessened by the pleasure I evinced in attending 
the functions on feast days at St. Giuseppe. She knew not 
that it w T as the grand strain of the organ and the solemn ar- 
chitecture which charmed me, and that often as I was kneel- 
ing beside her on the marble floor, my imagination, awakened 
by these incentives, was wandering in wild dreams and vague 
speculations, while my lips mechanically repeated the words 
of the mass. My other great source of pleasure was listening 
to the singing of the daughter of one of our neighbors. This 
lady, like most of the Sicilians, had large eyes of the most 
brilliant jet. Her voice was of great compass, and she sang 
with much naivete and pathos. She was very partial to me, 
and as often as I could obtain permission to visit her house, 
she would sing my favorite airs, and bend her dark eyes in 
kindness upon me, as I sat, lost in delight, upon a stool at 
her feet. These amusements, with occasional pic-nic excur- 
sions in the summer, made up the history of my childhood. 
Simple as the circle of this experience seems, it was not al- 
together inadequate to the nature to which it ministered. 
My affections — those eternal fountains, in whose freshness. 



VITTORIO. 109 

purity, and freedom the happiness of humanity is most deeply 
involved — were gratified and cherished. My mind — that in- 
telligent power, in the expansion and culture of which so 
much of human progress and energy consists — feasted on the 
glory of nature and the variety of the human world. Curi- 
osity was not then satiated ; the sense of wonder had not be- 
come palsied — feeling was vivid, responsive, and earnest, 
glowing with the intensity of its celestial origin. When first 
I began to reason, it seemed to me men were prone to exag- 
gerate the happiness of childhood. I thought it so glorious 
a thing to inquire, to unroll the scroll of knowledge, and to 
see everything in the light of science. The illusion was tem- 
porary. I soon learned that the less of the spontaneous there 
is in character, the less also is there of interest ; that techni- 
cality can petrify truth, and that the sooner the rosy glow of 
life's morning fades from the spirit's domain, the faster gath- 
ers over it the chill shadow of the world and the dim atmos- 
phere of Time. 

" But long before childhood was merged in youth I was 
called to trial. My mother died. Every circumstance of 
this event remains impressed upon my mind, but it was not 
until years after its occurrence that I realized its consequen- 
ces. The greatest misfortune that can happen to a young 
man is such a bereavement. Naught can recompense him for 
the loss of a mother. A father's affection is generally more 
worldly. It is too often graduated by the degree of success 
with which his son may meet in the pursuit of wealth or 
fame. A mother's love is more of an inborn and self-nour- 
ished sentiment. I know we have recorded signal instances 
of parental ambition in woman ; but it has far oftener been 
my lot to witness the manifestations of an attachment infi- 
nitely purer. To a man of true and deep sentiment there is 
no greater consolation, in the whole range of his affections, 



110 SICILY. 

than the consciousness that there is one being who loves him 
for his own sake ; whose devotion the changes of his fortune 
will not influence, and to whose eye the fairest laurels cannot 
make him dearer; who loves him individually, and regards 
the circumstances, the wealth, the honors that environ him, 
only as temporary means of his enjoyment — a graceful dra- 
pery, which, if the rude blast of misfortune throws it off, will 
but make her clasp him closer to her heart, and more tenderly 
cherish him in her love. But it was only by slow degrees 
that the extent of this early loss came home to my mind ; 
and its memory proved one of the most subduing and chas- 
tening thoughts which visited my impetuous youth. Another 
of its good effects was its influence upon my social life. I 
cultivated, from a mere boy, such female society as was cal- 
culated to elevate my mind and call forth my best feeliogs. 
My heart has never been suffered to indurate from the ab- 
sence of that gentler companionship, without the influence 
of which, all that is most refined in man would be superseded. 
There has ever been within the scope of my acquaintance, 
some fair being who has found the time and the feeling, amid 
more binding relations, to evince a soul-soothing interest 
which cheered my orphanage. I have never been wholly 
motherless. 

" My father's mind was now entirely devoted to political 
schemes. He was an ardent republican, and for many years 
had been secretly engaged in a confederacy to secure the in- 
dependence of Sicily. And when the dearest of his domestic 
ties was severed, all the energy of his nature was concentrated 
upon this darling purpose. Although I was but a child, yet, 
from my reflective turn, my father reposed a confidence in 
me which I have since recalled with wonder. I was his sole 
companion at home ; and, after returning from the conclave, 
he would sit in the hall, now bereft of the presence which 



VITTORIO. HI 

hallowed it to his view, and, drawing me to his side, half 
soliloquize oyer his past happiness and present objects, while 
I looked my sympathy, and caught, perhaps, more of the 
spirit of his designs than he could have imagined. How 
vivid is the retrospect of those hours ! I can see before me 
now the long and lofty apartment, its ranges of sofas, and 
gilded cornices ; the brightly-painted frescos on the ceiling, 
the table covered with little memorials (the delight of my 
childhood) of my mother's tasteful handiwork, the alabaster 
vase daily filled with flowers ; and, in the shade of the cur- 
tains, the figure of my father in his sable dress, his pale 
features shaded by a cap of black velvet, and his eye resting 
musingly and mournfully on me, as he unconsciously poured 
forth the feelings which overcharged his breast. To the 
solemnizing effect of these seasons I attribute much* of the 
thoughtfulness which distinguished my youth. I felt myself 
marked out and signalized by being thus made the confidant 
of my father. The sense of character soon dawned upon me. 
The idea of responsibility was precociously developed. I 
began early to think. Though mute on the great subject of 
my parent's thought, though inadequate to comprehend the 
extent of his aim and the importance of his object, yet I un- 
derstood distinctly, I felt deeply, that my country was de- 
pressed, subject to an exterior domination, and that her en- 
franchisement was in contemplation. I cannot tell you how 
the grandeur of this design delighted my young fancy. It 
was the subject of each day's musing and each night's dreams. 
The very vagueness of my conceptions increased their power. 
Often have I left the servant who attended me, at the church 
of St. Rosalia, and climbed to the telegraph on the summit 
of Mount Pelegrino, and gazing thence over the lovely valley 
of Palermo, and seaward to the Eolian isles, thought of the 
new glory which would illumine the scene beneath the smile 



112 SICILY. 

of Liberty. True, I knew not clearly the nature of the bless- 
ing ; but I had learned to think that in its train all others 
came, and I understood it to be especially inimical to soldiers 
and priests — the objects of my boyish detestation. I knew 
something, too, of the history of my native island, and images 
of ancient glory, ill-defined, but glowing, fed the flame of my 
enthusiasm. It was June. The luxuriance of summer, without 
its scorching heat, breathed, like a conscious presence, around 
the dense confines of the city. To my young being the time 
was full of inspiration ; and one breezy evening, as I sat on 
a granite bench upon yonder terrace, looking on the gay 
groups below, and feeling the exhilarating breath of the sea, 
I followed a poetical vein which I had often indulged, and 
wrote upon my tablets an invocation to my country. These 
verses, some years afterwards, when I was learning your lan- 
guage, I translated, and repeat them, because they will give 
you a good idea of the wild wishes of that hour. 

( Gaze around o'er your country, Sicilians ! and start 
From the impotent sleep of degenerate slaves ; 
Like the eagle, long poised, now triumphantly dart 
On the minions that trample your ancestors' graves. 

1 Gaze around o'er your country !— the crystal-blue deep 
With pearl-flashing foam wreaths encircles the land, 
And the sentinel hills in wild majesty sweep 
From western horizon to orient strand. 

1 The orange groves gleam mid the dark olive bowers, 
Like gold drops which wood-nymphs have sportively thrown ; 
Where the broad thorny cactus and aloe strew flowers, 
And the emerald shafts of the cypresses moan. 

1 Gaze around o'er your country ! — in many a dale 
Some beautiful temple, with ivy leaves wreathed, 
Like a voice from Time's dark and mysterious vale, 
Proclaims where the spirit of liberty breathed. 



VITTORIO. 113 

1 Gaze around o'er your country ! — old Etna unfurls 
Her wide saffron banner along the clear sky ; 
Or from her white summit indignantly hurls 
The blaze of her beacon-flame lurid and high. 

1 And often the streams in stern solitude gush 
From thy mountain-clouds into some lofty ravine, 
And then, like an army, in fierce triumph rush 
Through rugged defiles and o'er valleys serene. 

' where are the men who for Sicily fought 
With warrior zeal in the van of each war 1 
And the maidens who proudly their dark tresses wrought 
Into bow-strings to drive the invaders afar 7* 

' Forth, scions of pride ! — your high titles retrieve ; 
Forth, sons of the deep ! leave your nets on the shore ; 
Forth, children of Ceres ! your corn cease to weave — 
To the altars, ye women ! for freedom implore. 

{ From ancient Charybdis, where swift eddies play, 
From Passaro's beach, where the green waters smile, 
To the proud cliff that looms o'er Palermo's bright bay, 
Strike, strike for Sicilia, your foe-stricken isle ! 

{ What Nature's fresh glory has robed to allure, 
Let Valor redeem and let Virtue endear; 
Rise, Sicily, rise ! and no longer endure 
The base hireling's scoff or the patriot's tear.' 

" The secret party of which my father was so devoted a 
member were doomed to disappointment, from a cause which 
has often occasioned the failure of popular movements — pre- 
mature action on the part of those least fitted to assume the 
responsibility. Among the many ancient traditions relative 
to this island is that which asserts that it once formed part 
of the mainland. If there is any truth in this, it might ap- 

* It is an historical fact, that at the siege of Messina the women 
braided their hair into bow-strings, for the use of the archers. 



114 SICILY. 

pear that with the convulsion of Nature which divided it 
from the continent, sprang up a similar line of demarkation 
between the inhabitants of the two territories ; for the present 
cordial hatred existing between the Sicilians and Neapolitans 
is an antipathy inherited from the earliest time, and at no 
period have the inhabitants of Sicily been reconciled to the 
idea of forming a constituent part of the kingdom of Naples. 
If any other motive had been requisite to render their inde- 
pendence more obviously desirable, it was furnished by the 
experience they had of the English constitution during the 
brief continuance of the British domination. In the summer 
of 1 820, the popular feeling on this subject reached its acme. 
At the feast of St. Rosalia, while mass was celebrating at 
the cathedral, the first indication of an approaching tumult 
was given by some person in the crowd suddenly and repeat- 
edly exclaiming, { Liberty and the Constitution !' In the 
evening three soldiers passed through the streets wearing the 
badge of the Carbonari. The commanding officer went in 
person to arrest them, but was surrounded by the people, and 
narrowly escaped with his life. The next day the populace 
forced from the authorities an order of admittance into the 
arsenal, and there supplied themselves with arms. This suc- 
cess emboldened them beyond measure. A Franciscan friar, 
whom intoxication had infuriated, appeared in their midst, 
urging them on to sanguinary effort Their latent supersti- 
tion was awakened. They looked upon the long beard and 
sacred habit of their monkish leader, and with one voice de- 
clared him to be Moses, commissioned by Heaven to secure 
their independence. The prison was thrown open, and the 
city echoed with the noise of conflict. For several days 
anarchy reigned in Palermo. The rabble, intoxicated with 
their temporary triumphs, gave themselves up to indiscrimi- 
nate rapine and butchery. The horrid scenes then enacted, 



VITTORIO. 115 

the license and brutality which prevailed, indicated the utter 
unfitness of the people for the dignity and blessings of politi- 
cal freedom. Slowly but surely this impression gained upon 
the reluctant mind of my father. Still he exerted himself to 
wrest the newly-acquired power from the mob, and restore 
order and peace. After some time this was effected. A pro- 
vincial government was established, and for a few months the 
capital of Sicily was nominally independent. But small was 
the satisfaction which this long-desired condition brought to 
the minds of the intelligent patriots. They could effect no 
unity of sentiment or action between the different parts of 
the island. Messina, mindful of her long rivalry with the 
metropolis, refused to take part in the cause. The Neapoli- 
tan troops stationed themselves near the walls, and after 
repeated repulses were finally admitted within the gates. A 
year afterwards the inhabitants were prohibited from holding 
arms without a license, the usual enginery of despotism was 
re-established, and the leaders of the struggle and known ad- 
vocates of liberal principles were executed or banished. The 
latter was my father's fate ; and as the mountains of our na- 
tive island faded from our view, the last hope of patriotic 
success vanished drearily from his mind, and the first bright 
and absorbing dream of boyhood melted like a mist from my 
sanguine heart. 

" We soon repaired to England. There, when habit had 
somewhat reconciled me to the reserve of northern manners, 
and practice had given me the command of your native 
tongue, I was conscious of a new and important era of men- 
tal experience. I became deeply interested in the study of 
English literature. I communed with the master spirits of 
that noble lore, enriching my mind with philosophical truth, 
and my imagination with poetic beauty of a deeper and more 
elevating character than the prevailing literature of the South 



116 SICILY. 

had afforded me. But from these studies I gained general 
ideas rather than fixed principles. This was the more to be 
regretted, as I soon arrived at one of those gloomy epochs 
of life, more or less known to us all, where ' of necessity the 
soul must be its own support.' My father, wearied with dis- 
appointment, and rendered restless by the changes which had 
followed in such rapid succession upon his declining years, 
sunk under the effects of a fever, and grief and anxiety would 
have soon laid me beside him, had I not yielded to the ur- 
gency of friends, and changed the scene and climate. I se- 
lected Malta for the place of my destination, chiefly because 
of its contiguity to my native island. I little thought, in the 
dejected mood in which I embarked, of the consolation there 
awaiting me. So happy is the retrospect of my visit, not- 
withstanding it occurred at one of the saddest periods of my 
life, that I dwell upon every circumstance attending it with 
unabated pleasure. The day of my arrival and those imme- 
diately succeeding it, are thus brightly present to my mem- 
ory, because they are associated with one of the most blessed 
occasions of my youth. It was then that I gained one of the 
greatest of human acquisitions, a sense of important truths, 
in the light of which the darkness and doubt which overshad- 
owed my spirit were suddenly dissipated. 

" The sun shone clearly as we neared Malta. The warmth 
of the atmosphere, the deep blue tint of the water, and the 
tones in which we were greeted, made me realize that I had 
once more entered the precincts of Southern Europe. In 
the distance, more like a pictorial than a real scene, rose the 
ancient city. Its peculiar hue, the long line of massive bat- 
tlements, and the darkly-wrought domes, chained our atten- 
tion. In a few moments we were at anchor in the quarantine 
harbor, between two forts. A clump of verdure relieved the 
eye as it rested on the heavy walls, all wearing the same dim 



VITTORIO. 117 

yellow or grayish shade ; and the picturesque figures of the 
Highland regiment gave animation to the scene. The view 
was beautiful after the moon rose. The shadow of the dark 
wall on the calm tide, the soothing reflection of the light, the 
perfect repose, was all in striking contrast to the scenes of 
bloodshed, and the sounds of death, with which my memory 
was busy. On the evening of the next day we received per- 
mission to go round the grand harbor. As, towed by fifteen 
boats, we slowly proceeded, at sunset, from every new point 
the city spread out before us — the long bastions dotted with 
moss, at whose wave-washed faundations the restless tide now 
moaned ; above them dark ranges of buildings, and around, 
various craft plying. "We entered the harbor between the 
memorable castles of St. Elmo and St. Angelo, and were 
soon moored by the quay, along which were swarming the 
motley crowd ever to be seen at night-fall in such a place. 
It was not until the succeeding evening that we obtained 
pratique. As I walked up the Nix-Mangare stairs, the sup- 
plicating voices of the beggars, the silent sternness of the 
soldiery, the clanking fetters of the convicts sweeping the 
streets, and here and there a shrine, carried me at once back 
to my home and the days of childhood. The intervening 
space of time seemed annihilated. Nor was this feeling les- 
sened on entering our hotel, which had been a knight's palace. 
The stone floors, painted walls, and lofty ceilings were 
strangely familiar. A new sense of my loneliness, of all that 
I had lost and suffered, came over me. I felt more keenly 
than ever that I was an orphan and an exile. 

M My companions, without understanding the nature of 
my melancholy, strove to divert it, and dragged me that very 
evening to a ball given by the officers of the regiments then 
quartered in the island. The display was very brilliant. 
At the entrance of the hall were four suits of ancient armor, 



118 SICILY. 

arranged at the corners of a kind of military tent ; and at 
the head of the ball-room was a fine staff of colors surround- 
ing the British escutcheon. The scarlet uniform of the mil- 
itary, and the neat blue of the naval officers, the calm faces 
and light ringlets of the English damsels, contrasting with 
the dark hair and eyes of the Maltese, the national banners 
and fresh garlands on the walls, rendered the pageant quite 
dazzling. This insignia of joy into which I had suffered my- 
self to be drawn, instead of alleviating, served to deepen the 
gloom which oppressed me. Gladness was upon every face, 
and I asked myself whether there was one amid the multi- 
tude who was an outcast like myself. As the idea presented 
itself, my eye fell upon a countenance which seemed almost 
to answer the unuttered inquiry. It was that of a man be- 
yond the prime of life, whose expression would have denoted 
no common familiarity with sorrow, were it not for a certain 
tranquil dignity and benign spirit which softened and ele- 
vated its aspect. As the gaze of the stranger met my own, 
I felt that instinctive consciousness of sympathy which is so 
impressive yet inexplicable. I watched his movements; I 
followed his eye, and endeavored to image his thoughts, till 
a call to the supper-room interrupted my sight for a few mo- 
ments, after which I discovered that he had left the assem- 
bly. My pillow was haunted by that thoughtful and kindly 
face. Its remembrance comforted me as if I had read there 
a message of love. I could not account for these vagaries ; 
and on the following morning stole away from my compan- 
ions, and went forth to make the circuit of the ramparts, to 
see what effect a solitary walk would have in dispelling my 
gloomy mood. Upon one of the saluting batteries are sev- 
eral monuments tastefully adorned with trees. Here is a 
pleasant promenade. Below, various vessels are moored ; 
far away to the left is the wide sea, and immediately beneath, 



VITTOBIO. 119 

the dingy houses and narrow streets of the town. Alto- 
gether the prospect was impressive and pleasing. The adja- 
cent memorials of the dead, the refreshing hue of the shrub- 
bery, and the hum of busy life, with the ocean stretching 
illimitably, and shadowed only by a passing cloud or the 
wing of a sea-bird, combined to form one of those happily- 
blended landscapes which embody, in mingled and striking 
symbols, the idea of nature and art, of ancient times and 
modern characteristics, of man and his Creator. I leaned 
over the parapet, and endeavored to catch something of its 
calm and pleasantness. But it came not ; and I applied ear- 
nestly to myself the words of the poet : 

{ Alas ! I have nor hope nor health, 

Nor peace within, nor calm around, 
Nor that content surpassing wealth 
The sage in meditation found.' 

u As if to bless me with the last boon, I saw ascending to 
the bastion the gentleman whose appearance had so interested 
me at the ball. We exchanged salutations, and then spoke 
of the prospects before us. The voice and manner of the 
stranger were singularly winning. By degrees our acquain- 
tance advanced, and in a week there was knit between us a 
bond of sympathy which time cannot sever. I imparted to 
my friend what you have so patiently heard. He repaid me 
by unfolding the theory of his faith, which has been my con- 
solation from that hour. Yet his history, his very name, is 
unknown to me: Our interviews took place during our daily 
promenades, and just as he was about to fulfil his promise, 
and confide his own experience to me, the vessel in which he 
had taken passage for the East was suddenly ordered to sail, 
and I had not even an opportunity of bidding him farewell. 
The following day, receiving official permission to return to 



120 SICILY. 

Sicily, I immediately embarked, and arrived here an altered 
being ; for those characteristics and views which you have 
so often wondered should appertain to a native of these re- 
gions, are but the result of my communion with that stran- 
ger-friend." 



Wmmlm. 

The only true liberal subjects of conversation are thoughts and actions of uni- 
versal interest. De Stael. 

IT was the custom of the little party whose journeyings we 
have followed, to pass the evenings not devoted to some 
engagement, in conversing upon the experience of the day. 
Not unfrequently the ladies of Isabel's acquaintance insisted 
upon her society in a morning's ride or a day's excursion, 
and the gentlemen were left to seek amusement by them- 
selves. They atoned, however, for these occasional interrup- 
tions to their mutual intercourse, by relating, on meeting, all 
that had interested them, or was likely to divert their gifted 
companion from the sad musings into which, when unexcited 
by attractive conversation, she would almost invariably fall. 
One evening, however, both her uncle and Vittorio were un- 
usually silent. They seemed quite thoughtful and abstracted, 
and Isabel herself began to wonder at the spiritless mood 
which had overtaken them all ; and eagerly inquired what 
had occupied her companions since breakfast. 

" We have been," replied her uncle, " in scenes well cal- 
culated to awaken thought ; we have been contemplating the 
states to which all human beings are liable j we have been 
among the insane and the dead." 



122 SICILY. 

u I am, perhaps, to blame," said the count, " for having 
taken your uncle to two such places in one day, but it was 
quite accidental. We first went to the Capuchin Convent, 
and descended into the catacombs. An old brother, of Por- 
tuguese origin, who speaks a little English, was our guide. 
He seemed pleased with the opportunity thus afforded for 
exercising his almost forgotten acquisition, and continually, 
as we threaded these sepulchral chambers, repeated verse 
after verse, from that impressive chapter of Ecclesiastes de- 
scriptive of the vanity of life. As he preceded us, with his 
coarse brown robe and gray beard descending over his breast, 
ever and anon reciting in a hollow tone these memorable pas- 
sages, so appropriate to the scene, I could not but think the 
guide was singularly adapted to his vocation. The long wide 
galleries of this extraordinary sepulchre are crowded with 
niches, in which stand the frames of men, dressed in their 
professional garbs — the priest with his cassock, the friar with 
his hood ; their fleshless eye-sockets and set teeth glaring, as 
it were, upon the intruder into their subterranean halls. The 
floor is covered with coffins ; the sides walled with skeletons; 
everything betokens the abode of the dead, and the light of 
day, and echo of a living footstep, seem startlingly unnatural. 
A tinsel crown clasps the bare skull of the king of Tunis ; 
and there is one long room in which the female bodies appear 
in glass cases, like those in which the Parisian shopkeeper 
displays his valuables, decked out in gay silks and tawdry 
ornaments, in horrible contrast with the mouldering bones. 
Altogether the spectacle is one of the most singular and re- 
volting imaginable." 

" The scene at the Insane Asylum," said Frazier, " was 
more satisfactory, though not less dispiriting. The evidences 
of care and kindness bestowed upon beings who in less civilized 
times were treated as outcasts, is truly delightful. The Baron 



DISCUSSION. 123 

Pisani, who originated and now superintends the establish- 
ment, attends to his duty with an intelligence and philanthro- 
py which merits imitation. There are gardens and grottos, 
and even a little amphitheatre to amuse the inmates. Frescos 
on every side please the eye ; fountains murmur to soothe 
the ear. Work is provided to distract the attention of the 
insane from the single corroding idea in which their malady 
so often consists ; and firmness and affection seem to be the 
ever-present principles by which the wayward creatures are 
ruled and guided." 

i: It is the boast of many of these deranged people," con- 
tinued the count, " that they have constructed the embellish- 
ments of their asylum. There is a little song in vogue among 
them, declaring that it is not they that are mad, but the un- 
happy toilers for this world's aims who are, without the walls 
of their retreat. Indeed everything is done to banish from 
their minds all consciousness of their desolate state, and they 
cherish an affectionate respect for the baron, the manifesta- 
tions of which are truly beautiful. Still, no arrangements, 
however excellent, can obviate the painful impression of such 
a scene. In our walk round the institution, we beheld every 
degree and variety of this terrible form of human suffering. 
The cries of the frantic echoed from their gloomy cells ; here 
sat a miserable hypochondriac, to whose eyes God's sunlight 
brings no gladness, swaying to and fro his attenuated frame, 
bowed down with unutterable dejection ; there walked, in 
restless misery, a priest, upon whose pale brow brooded the 
most abject despair. Upon a bench, in a lonely corner, 
crouched an old man who had once excelled in science, and 
is now lingering out existence in speechless woe. There was 
a Greek woman, with a fine open countenance, and pleasant 
eye, singing to herself. She believes that a superior intelli- 
gence is enamored of her charms, and the idea, instead of 



124 SICILY. 

flattering her vanity, plays upon her mind as a most undesira- 
ble and inauspicious circumstance. An old artillery captain, 
with a guitar, was reciting with much gusto some passage 
from Meli, whose especial panegyrist he considers himself. 
A painter, whom disappointment in his art rendered mad, has 
now nearly recovered the tone of his mind, and the walls of 
the house and corridors testify to his industry and skill. As 
one wanders amid these stricken beings, how valueless seem 
the objects, idolatry to which are such prolific causes of mad- 
ness — gain and ambition ! Yet before these perishable shrines, 
men prostrate their noblest endowments, and lose in the 
whirlwind of passion their most distinguishing and god-like 
attributes. Some, indeed, have become insane from more 
touching causes — blighted affection, wounded honor, bereaved 
friendship. What cause for gratitude have we, while we can 
think rationally, while the light of reason burns clear, and 
the soul possesses herself in peace ; while the harmony of 
creation steals with an unbroken cadence upon the spirit, and 
the rays of truth fall fall and brightly over the heart ; while 
the blessings of existence descend gratefully upon the path 
of life, and the darker passes of experience throw over it only 
a solemnizing shadow, and not an impenetrable gloom !" 

The sound of bells ringing the Ave Maria now rose to 
the ears of the coterie. 

li That chime," said Frazier, " rung not so peacefully over 
Palermo some centuries back, when it ushered in a night of 
the most horrible massacre recorded in history. There is a tra- 
dition, current I believe among the islanders, that this extermi- 
nating plot, known under the name of the Sicilian Vespers, 
was brought about by a poor fellow who had suffered greatly 
from the tyranny of the French, and who, pretending to be 
deaf, made the tour of Sicily on foot, whispering in every 
Sicilian ear, that on the thirtieth of March, at this hour, all 



DISCUSSION. 125 

residents were to be put to death who could not pronounce 
the word ciceri (vetches), a test that would infallibly betray 
a Frenchman, however well versed in the dialect of the 
country." 

" Whatever foundation this story may have in truth," 
said the count, " the better informed are more fond of priding 
themselves upon the address of Giovanni di Procida in bring- 
ing about that sanguinary event. He went to Constantino- 
ple, and informed the emperor that it was the intention of 
Charles of Anjou to attack that city, and recommended him 
to furnish funds to the Sicilians to aid their proposed revo- 
lution, which would divert the arms of Charles from him- 
self. The assistance being promised, he returned to Sicily, 
and engaged a confederacy of noblemen to relinquish the 
island to the King of Arragon. With the contract in his 
bosom, he then repaired to Rome, and obtained the written 
sanction of the pope. Then visiting Peter of Arragon, he 
easily persuaded him to proceed with a fleet to the Mediter- 
ranean, and await the rising of the Sicilians, to seize upon the 
island. Giovanni then returned here, and completed the ar- 
rangement, which terminated in the Sicilian Vespers. This 
master-stroke of policy, by which the several powers were so 
artfully deceived, and the cruel Charles overthrown, has ever 
been highly appreciated — for cunning is a weapon of the 
value of which the Sicilians entertain a deep sense. The ex- 
ploit of this diplomatist has formed the subject of several 
tragedies, the best of which was written by Niccolini of 
Florence." 

"But have you no talented authors?" inquired Isabel. 

u Sicilian literature is at present in a very low state. The 
strict censorship exercised over the press is alone sufficient 
to damp the ambition of those best fitted to do honor to their 
country through its medium. Our national poet is Meli. 



126 SICILY. 

His poems are of a pastoral character, descriptive of the 
beauties of the country, and filled with the most accurate 
pictures of peasant life. To one who understands the Sicilian 
dialect, his writings abound in graphic beauty. He paints 
altogether from nature, and has fulfilled to the scenery and 
manners of Sicily the same office of poetical, yet true inter- 
pretation, which Burns has to those of Scotland. Many of 
his idyls are in circulation orally among the common people, 
and all classes glory in his fame. There are many mediocre 
writers, but the generality who have a taste for intellectual 
pursuits turn their attention to antiquarian researches or 
scientific studies. Some have contributed, as magazine wri- 
ters and historians, minor pieces of some merit to the meagre 
stock of Sicilian literature. These are written in Italian. 
But it is useless to expect great literary results among a 
people so situated and educated. It is only where a sphere 
is open, and education general, that the foundation may be 
laid and the motive afforded for literary development. Men 
are then interested in the mental cultivation of their chil- 
dren's minds ; a nation of readers springs up, and there will 
be writers to meet their wants." 

u And it is not only thus with literature," said Frazier ; 
" the low estimation in which integrity — that key-stone of the 
social arch — is held, may be traced to want of reverence for 
those primary ties which form the basis of every community. 
In a country where wine and oil, fruits, grain, and minerals, 
are so abundantly produced — where crops, by judicious culti- 
vation, might be trebled — where there are such excellent fa- 
cilities for commerce and fisheries, the want of prosperity 
cannot be ascribed to the absence of natural advantages." 

" No," replied the count, " the existing poverty of this 
beautiful island, which Cicero called the granary of Rome, is 
chiefly attributed to inherited evils of government, and habits 



DISCUSS TON. 127 

of idleness, and vice, a disproportionate nobility, a pampered 
priesthood, and an utterly unenlightened lower order. One 
of the immediate causes of the reduced circumstances of the 
higher rank of Sicilians is the change made about twenty 
years since in the law of primogeniture. The property which 
then enabled the eldest son to live in splendor is now dis- 
tributed among all the children, and being still farther subdi- 
vided by marriages, reduces the fortunes of the barons to a 
score of slender patrimonies. The immense tax upon landed 
property is another drain upon their resources. The earnings 
of the common people are half consumed by gambling. The 
royal lottery is constructed on such a scale as to allow the 
hazard of the smallest sums, with a proportionate prize in 
prospect. They generally select numbers from the intima- 
tion of dreams." 

" I fancied a half-hour's walk the other morning," rejoined 
Frazier, " afforded me a tolerable idea of the state of things. 
A delicate-looking child begged a bioch; I was passing on, 
when my servant urged me to regard the petitioner ; ' for, 
eecellenza,' said he, i it is the son of a marquis, who has lost 
his all in lawsuits.' A moment after we encountered a pale, 
bright-eyed boy, going to school. l What do you study V I 
asked. ' The life of St. Luigi, signor.' 

" We passed through a market-place. I saw people of 
respectable appearance buying everything for the day's use, 
even to the charcoal for cooking and the oil for the night's 
burning. I never knew what living from hand to mouth 
meant before." 

They were interrupted by one of those visits to which 
every traveller is exposed. An agate merchant asked leave 
to display his rare specimen. A Franciscan monk tendered 
some fine olives, the produce of his convent-garden, and 
begged an eleemosynary remembrance ; while tt picture-dealer 



128 SICILY. 

brought a long roll of certificates, to prove that the Madonna 
he offered for sale was a genuine Monrealease. At length 
the several claims of these personages were considered, and 
they bowed themselves out of the room, after bestowing more 
titles upon the kind-hearted republican than in his whole life 
he had been honored with before. 

u If these people had more to do," said he, " they would 
not be so prodigal of their compliments." 

" Nay, uncle," said Isabel, "there is certainly a kindliness 
in their greetings which might well be adopted by our more 
laconic people. I know that the blessing they invoke when 
one sneezes, their wishes for a good appetite and pleasant 
slumber, their excellenzas, and exaggerated epithets of wel- 
come and reverence, are often subjects of ridicule, but in a 
broad view are they not gratifying ?" 

" Yes," replied the count ; u may we not exclaim, with 
Sterne, i Hail, ye small, sweet courtesies of life, for sweet do 
you make the road of it?' I think we may justly consider 
one of the redeeming traits of the Sicilian character — a spon- 
taneous regard, a sentiment of attachment, and an interest in 
others, the very semblance of which is cheering to the heart. 
An American, in judging of European character, should bear 
in mind the circumstances of his own country. The restless 
energies of a young nation have been unfolding around him. 
He has been encircled by the machinery of an advancing civ- 
ilization. He has been witnessing the phenomena of national 
growth. He has lived amid the excitement of constant ex- 
periments. He has been listening to the warfare of un- 
shackled opinion. The spirit of society around him has been 
nicely regulated and duly restrained ; social intercourse 
checked by mutual reserve ; and the expression of feeling 
restricted by custom, graduated by rule, and chilled by the 
influence of a northern clime, as well as a calmer national 



DISCUSSION. 129 

temperament. Here he is environed by a people wedded to 
the customs of past ages, unfamiliar with many of the im- 
provements of the day, and, in some of the arrangements of 
life, far behind the age in which they live ; where time is 
still reckoned by the primitive method, where the lottery 
courier outstrips the post, and the balcony takes the place 
of the fireside ; a people who display emotion with the free- 
dom of children, who observe much and reflect little, who 
enter with childlike eagerness into gaiety, and, at every age, 
court the pleasures of companionship with the ardor of youth. 
And who shall say to what extent these diversities are at- 
tributable in the one nation to freedom and prosperity, 
and in the other to political depression, and that hopeless 
and anti-progressive state into which the prospects of in- 
dividuals are thrown by a long series of despotic influen- 
ces ? Men are generally thoughtful as they have responsi- 
bilities, and energetic in proportion to their hopes. If the 
quickness of apprehension and general talents of the Sicilians 
were balanced by reflection, and cultivated by education, they 
would become a distinguished people. You may now witness 
an aptitude for intrigue displayed in compassing some trivial 
end, which, if properly directed, might form admirable scien- 
tific professors, or diplomatic characters. They understand 
a foreigner with remarkable readiness; they converse with 
their eyes and expressive gestures with astonishing tact. 
They are sanguinary under the influence of passion, but kind 
when in the least encouraged. In such a character there are 
elements of untried force and progress." 

6* 



The low, the deep, the pleading tone 

With which he told another's love, 

Interpreted his own. Genevieve. 

COMMEND me to travel as the occasion of love. The 
crowded assembly and the fashionable promenade are 
alike inimical to that free expression of thought and natural 
flow of feeling, through which alone the points of sympathy 
are discoverable. It is true, that in these scenes the first 
impression is often made which eventuates in attachment ; 
but amid them the best gifts of intellect, and the finest traits 
of sentiment, are too frequently veiled by an artificial man- 
ner, or concealed beneath the many external graces which it 
is the office of fashion to call forth. When, however, we feel 
ourselves separated for a while from the restraints of general 
society, and exposed to the free influence of nature and the 
incitement of variety, we resume our original, native spirit, 
and think, act, and feel w r ith renewed energy and truth. Few 
situations, therefore, are more conducive to the mutual devel- 
opment of character than that of two companions travelling 
together through scenes of interest and beauty. Mingling 
their admiration in view of each novel object, suffering the 



AN EPISODE. 131 

same inconveniences, exposed to the same dangers, and for 
days dependent upon each other's society for solace and 
amusement — if even a spark of congeniality exist, such aus- 
picious circumstances will fan it to a flame. The recorded 
conversations of Isabel and the count have been of a general 
character. Yet, in the course of these interviews, glances 
and tones had been exchanged, which a more imaginative ob- 
server than Frazier could not have failed to interpret into 
indications of a regard, somewhat deeper and more perma- 
nent than mere intellectual sympathy. Still no direct or 
positive expression had been given to the sentiment which 
had insensibly usurped the place of friendship. Happy in 
the daily interchauge of mind which her present circumstan- 
ces permitted, Isabel thought of the future only with refer- 
ence to her father, while she was unconsciously cherishing, 
or rather allowing to flourish in her breast, another affection 
calculated to ennoble or embitter her whole future life. But 
the count, whose consciousness was not dazzled by an antici- 
pation such as filled the mental vision of his fair companion, 
had long since confessed to himself that she had inspired an 
interest too earnest to be easily overcome, and too delightful 
not to be indulged ; and, although he had determined to post- 
pone, until the conclusion of their pilgrimage, any declaration 
of his feelings, they were ere long incidentally elicited. On 
a warm but delightful evening, the little party were present 
at a conversazione, at one of the most beautiful villas in the 
vicinity of Palermo. Its somewhat elevated position ren- 
dered the view from the balconies extensive and various, 
while the neighborhood of the mountains and sea exposed it 
to every breeze which might stir the quiet atmosphere of 
summer. The house was situated at some distance from the 
road, and behind it a spacious garden was tastefully laid out 
After passing several hours in the crowded rooms, Isabel 



132 SICILY. 

gladly accepted the count's invitation to repair to the gar- 
den, where many of the guests were promenading. They fol- 
lowed a path shaded by the embowering branches of the 
orange-trees, through which the moonlight fell in chequered 
lines upon the walk. At its extremity, near a small foun- 
tain, were several marble benches. As they approached, Isa- 
bel ardently expressed her delight at the picturesque charms 
of the retreat ; and, when they were seated, the count related 
the following anecdote ; 

THE SECOND COURTSHIP. 

" The former proprietor of this villa was a most elegant 
and interesting man. In his youth he had passed several 
years in Great Britain, and returned to his native city at the 
period when the English had possession of the island. As 
he spoke their language perfectly, and was an intelligent and 
agreeable companion, there was no Sicilian more frequently 
to be found in their circles, or one who was more deservedly 
popular among them. At that time there was residing in 
Palermo, the ward of an English officer, committed to his 
care by her father, an old friend, who died many years pre- 
vious in England. Caroline Walter was not only beautiful, 
but so fascinating in her manners, that she was the object of 
universal admiration. To the extreme mortification of many 
of her countrymen, she received, without displeasure, the 
marked attentions of Palma, the inheritor of this beautiful 
domain. They were, in truth, admirably fitted for each other. 
His chief fault was an impetuosity of feeling, which some- 
times urged him into acts of foolish precipitancy; but in 
mind and principle he was infinitely superior to the general- 
ity of his countrymen, and it was the virtues of Caroline 
Walter, not less than her personal graces, which had won his 



AN EPISODE. 133 

heart. You are aware of the inveterate prejudice which the 
English entertain towards foreigners ; and you must have per- 
ceived how strongly it is cherished in the case of the Sicil- 
ians. There are, indeed, discrepancies of temperament and 
character between the two people to account for, if not to 
justify, some degree of such a feeling ; and the want of edu- 
cation, and the moral degradation too prevalent among the 
inhabitants of this island, is sufficient to explain the little 
favor they find in the eyes of one of the most enlightened 
nations of the earth. But this, like all other prejudices, is 
too indiscriminate, and therefore unworthy of being enter- 
tained by any liberal or philosophical mind. The known 
virtues of Palma did not weigh with the friends of Caroline 
Walter. She was assailed on every side and in every man- 
ner, to induce her to renounce her lover, because he was a 
Sicilian, but in vain. She could not appreciate the argu- 
ment ; and having found him honorable, gifted, and especially 
possessed of tastes and sentiments accordant with her own, 
she hesitated not to reciprocate his ardent and disinterested 
attachment. After their marriage they were for a short 
time absent upon the continent, and then returned hither, 
and established themselves at this villa. The sight of 
their domestic enjoyment re-awakened disappointment in the 
breasts of some of the young English officers — and there 
were two of them especially, who resolved, if possible, to 
disturb the happiness which they had not the magnanimity 
to rejoice in. How to sow the seeds of discord where har- 
mony was so complete, was a question they could not easily 
solve. To attempt to impair the confidence of the wife they 
knew would be vain, and, moreover, there was a dignity and 
independent superiority in her character which awed them 
into silent respect. Unfortunately, they were aware of the 
weakness of Palma, and upon this they determined to play. 



[34 SICILY. 

Industriously circulating reports that his wife repented of 
her connection, they took measures that not a day should 
pass but some insinuation reached his ears, calculated to ex- 
cite that jealousy which belongs to the Sicilian temperament. 
For a long time these rumors affected him not. He knew 
the propensity of his countrymen for scandal ; and if for a 
moment a doubt had darkened his mind, one glimpse at the 
ingenuous and noble countenance of his lovely wife, or a sin- 
gle tone of her sweet welcome, dispelled it in a moment. 
One day, however, when several English officers, and among 
them the two hypocrites, were dining here, one of them, after 
the repast, took Palma aside, and after extorting many prom- 
ises of secresy, and making innumerable professions of friend- 
ship, like a second Iago, advised hitn to watch narrowly, lest 
his domestic peace was invaded. This ambiguous "warning, 
conveyed thus solemnly, alarmed Palma. He returned 
thoughtfully towards the house. Caroline's joyous laugh 
reached his ear. For the first time there was something un- 
musical in it. He raised his eyes to yonder terrace, and saw 
her promenading, and apparently in the pleasantest conversa- 
tion, with the accomplice of him who had just poisoned his ear, 
and who no sooner caught a glimpse of his host than he. threw 
into his manner as great an air of confidence and familiarity 
as possible. This little incident, though of no importance 
in itself, served to irritate Palma into a fit of jealous musing. 
Surmises, as baseless as air, were brooded over till they 
grew into positive doubts beneath the fructifying influence of 
a southern imagination. And when the visitors had departed, 
in a moment of passion he appeared before his astonished 
wife, and charging her with having deceived and lost all affec- 
tion for him, if, indeed, she ever had any, rushed from her 
presence, .drove rapidly to town, and embarked that very eve- 
ning in a steam-packet for Malta Mount Pelegrino had not 



AN EPISODE. 135 

faded from his sight before he regretted the step he had 
taken. His self-reproaches were increased to agony, when an 
acquaintance, one of his fellow-passengers, after warmly eulo- 
gizing his wife, began to praise his forbearance towards those 
who endeavored to mar his happiness in order to gratify their 
spleen. All at once he saw his error, and mourned over his 
precipitancy. In three days he returned to Palermo, and 
sought this retreat, where his injured wife was secluded. He 
longed to throw himself at her feet and demand forgiveness ; 
but so great was his mortification, and so unpardonable, in 
his own eyes, seemed his conduct, that he had not the cour- 
age to approach her. He remembered the sad look of silent 
yet eloquent reproach with which she had gazed upon him as 
he left her presence. He recalled the pride of her character, 
and dreaded the effect of his weak and violent behavior. He 
knew not but her esteem for him had gone forever. In this 
state of indecision and perplexity he remained for several 
days in the neighborhood. One afternoon, towards dusk, he 
approached the house, and saw Caroline seated near the win- 
dow, but as he drew near she abruptly left the spot. He be- 
lieved she had recognized, and thus purposely avoided him. 
The next evening he again approached. She was in the same 
place, and half rose as he drew near, but perceiving him pass 
the door, she remained, and formally returned his proffered 
recognition. His impression then was that she thought him 
insane. In short, I cannot tell you by what gradual steps 
he progressed towards a reconciliation. No lover, for the 
first time delicately shaping his way to the heart of his mis- 
tress, could have acted more timidly, or been more trem- 
blingly alive to every faint indication of success. It was, 
in truth, a second courtship. At last, one lovely evening, 
such as this, he threw off the cloak which had hitherto con- 
cealed him from observation, and entering that grove just 



136 SICILY. 

opposite his wife's balcony, began to sing several of her favor- 
ite airs in a feigned voice. There lived in the neighborhood 
an old blind man, who had frequently amused them in this 
manner, and he knew she would come to the terrace to throw 
him the customary gratuity. After a short time, he heard 
the window open, and saw her step forth into the moonlight. 
It was the first time he had seen her distinctly since their 
separation. She was paler than usual, and a sad expression 
mellowed into pensive beauty the spirited loveliness of her 
countenance. She leaned over the rail, and seemed about to 
call the unseen vocalist, when he, anticipating her purpose, 
slightly softening his voice, commenced an Italian air which 
they had often sang together. The half-uttered word died 
on her lips, she stood still and listened, and presently, as if 
overcome by the associations thus awakened, the tears fell 
thick and fast from her eyes. The repentant husband saw 
that the favorable moment had arrived. He suddenly paused, 
and struck at once, with his natural voice, into a little Eng- 
lish song of his own composition, with which he had serena- 
ded her on the night when they first exchanged vows of eter- 
nal fidelity. At the first tone of that well-known voice she 
started, and turned towards the open window ; but as the 
feeling notes rolled on, she paused, as if entranced, and, as 
the last stanza was concluded, he sprang from his conceal- 
ment, and was on the terrace and at her feet in a moment. 
He was forgiven ; and the stream of affection, thus tempora- 
rily divided, re-united with new force and a more gladsome 
murmur, and flows on in rich and fertilizing beauty to this 
hour." 

When the count had related this story, Isabel begged to 
hear the song which had been the occasion of so happy a re- 
union. The scattered guests had left the walks to attend a 
summons to the refreshment room. The music from the 



AN EPISODE. 137 

saloon stole with a softened cadence through the trees ; and 
occasionally the laugh of some light-hearted being near one 
of the windows reached their ears ; but otherwise the garden 
was so quiet, that the silvery dripping of the fountain sounded 
clearly in the pauses of their conversation. Isabel, in her 
white dress, and with her luxuriant hair arranged with beau- 
tiful simplicity, and her expressive features radiating the 
quiet happiness which the scene inspired, had never appeared 
more lovely in the eyes of Vittorio ; and he threw into his 
voice an expression of earnestness, eloquently indicative of 
the secret emotions he cherished. 

THE SONG OF THE FOREIGN LOVER. 

" Yes, 'tis true thine eyes are azure, 

And thy brow is pale and high ; 
And 'tis true thy golden tresses 

Bespeak a northern sky. 
I know thy kindred live afar, 

Where the ancestral tree 
Waves greenly o'er their dwelling, 

Beyond the sparkling sea. 

Cl Yet if a darker orb replies 

Most earnestly to thine, 
And ebon locks bow truthfully 

Before thy beauty's shrine ; 
And if the accents of the South 

Breathe love's sincerest tone, 
Why wilt thou still remember 

This land is not thy own 1 

11 Are not the kindred of the heart 

More blest than ties of birth 1 
And the spot affection brightens 

Dearer than native earth 1 
Love, lady, hallows every clime 

To which his children roam, 
And with him for a household god, 

All places will be home." 



138 SICILY. 

Shelley has somewhere compared the effect of an impas- 
sioned sentiment to " the voice of one beloved singing to you 
alone." He understood the poetry of the heart. The scene 
and its associations entirely overcame the previous resolu- 
tions of Vittorio, and when Isabel quietly thanked him. and 
rose to return to the house, he gave earnest expression to his 
attachment. That hour was like an age in the history of her 
feelings. But she replied by calmly alluding to the object 
of her pilgrimage, and declared, that until that was accom- 
plished, she could not listen to a word on the subject. Yet 
her manner, her look, was enough to satisfy Vittorio, and 
when he rejoined the conversazione, it was with the delightful 
conviction of possessing her affections. 



€|u ^nst itnfr ffiwmi 



It is the past 
Contending with the present ; and, by turns, 
Each has the mastery. Rogers. 

FEW evidences of decay are more striking than those 
which mark the estates and arrangements of an impover- 
ished nobility. A ruin that speaks of a bygone people, how- 
ever it may awaken reflection, calls for little exertion or 
sympathy. Those to whose pride or comfort it originally 
ministered have long since departed. There is no lone mem- 
ber of the race to sigh over the ashes of past magnificence. 
The material fabric has survived its founder, and, in its ivy- 
buried ruins, serves but to remind us of antiquity. It is 
otherwise with the memorials of less ancient times. We can- 
not see the descendant of a once wealthy nobility, lingering 
about the time-worn and poverty-stricken home of his fathers, 
without a keen sense of the vanity of human grandeur. We 
cannot witness the vain struggles of a penniless nobleman to 
preserve the appearance of ancient splendor, without realizing 
the changeful moods of fortune. And when something of 
high and chivalrous sentiment ennobles the unfortunate in- 
heritor of a title ; without the means of supporting its dignity, 



140 SICILY. 

our compassion is instinctively awakened. We feel something 
of that pity which the tale of young Ravenswood's bitter 
reveries in the deserted mansion of his ancestors excites in 
the breast. There is a strong appeal to our feelings in the 
sight of one, who, with the ambition, has outlived the glory 
of his house. Although the aggravation of elevated feelings 
may not often increase the mortification of the poor nobility 
of the island, yet many evidences of their fallen lot are ob- 
servable in Sicily. As the stranger threads the crowded 
thoroughfares of Palermo, he continually sees the high fronts 
of palaces, blackened by age. Iron-wrought balconies pro- 
trude from the spacious windows, and tufts of weed or lines 
of mould indicate the ravages of neglect. Some of these ex- 
tensive buildings are tenanted by a score of families, who oc- 
cupy the different ranges of apartments, while others are still 
inhabited by the descendants of the original proprietors ; but 
very few are able to preserve a style of living corresponding 
with the grandeur of their dwellings. More frequently, upon 
entering these palaces, the visitor will pass through long suits 
of lofty rooms, with richly-painted walls and brightly-tiled 
floors — cold, bare, and deserted. In some distant chamber, 
perchance, he will find the occupant seated in a massive old 
chair, a deer-skin beneath his feet, and his snuff-box in hand, 
pondering upon the changes of some proposed game at hazard, 
or the best manner of once more evading some long-deferred 
obligation. It would rouse the very hearts of the old nobility 
to catch a glimpse of some of their proud abodes, and see 
halls adorned with the richest frescos and marbles, tenanted 
by the most plebeian citizens, converted into magazines for 
foreign merchants, or consigned to the destructive hand of 
abandonment and decay. 

Not only within the city did these objects afford occasion 
to Frazier for grave reflections on the utility of republicanism, 



THE PAST AND PRESENT. 141 

and incite Isabel's fancy to picture the past. Bagaria, in the 
environs, was a favorite resort of the wealthy Palermitans, in 
the season when the country is most inviting. The road 
thither lies along the sea, over a fertile plain thickly studded 
with olive and cypress trees, amid which the pleasant seats 
are finely located. Some of the rich worthies who were wont 
to retire to this delightful spot, must have been endowed with 
whimsical taste, if we may judge by the ornaments of their 
estates. One especially amused Isabel, and provoked the 
anger of Frazier at what he pleased to term the ridiculous 
extravagance of the proprietor. Around the roofs of the 
offices, and wherever an opportunity occurs on the main 
building, are figures carved in stone, of every imaginable 
form — monsters, deformed beasts, and grotesque men. Within 
the palace is a room, the walls of which are wrought, in glass 
of different hues, into various devices, while the ceiling is 
composed of mirrors. Although much of this fantastic work 
is dimmed and mutilated, the effect, when the apartment is 
illuminated, must be curious and brilliant. An adjoining and 
more spacious saloon, walled and floored with the finest mar- 
ble, is, however, more worthy of admiration. The clear, fresh 
hues of this princely material, from which, at intervals, start 
forth the statues and basso-relievos which vary its surface, 
and the brightly-polished floors, combine to convey an im- 
pression of strength, richness, and splendor much more pleas- 
ing than the gaudy and peculiar chamber adjacent. The 
furniture of many of the rooms in these decayed palaces re- 
mains very much as the more prosperous occupant left it ; 
and, wearied with their wanderings through the cold halls, 
the visitors were glad to rest in the antiquely-embroidered 
chairs. 

" Look around upon these ancient portraits," said Vittorio. 
a How little thought the proud noble who had his paternal 



142 SICILY. 

walls thus decorated, that they would, in a few short years, 
become the gaze of strangers. This fine-looking old gentle- 
man, and that lady in the dress of olden time, have doubtless 
often breakfasted in this very apartment, perhaps at that little 
tortoise-shell table. I delight to invoke the past, and the 
quiet and venerable air around us is favorable to such a pas- 
time. Let us imagine this stately couple in the days of their 
pride. Hither they came on the first summer after their 
bridal. Nature wore an aspect of unwonted beauty, for she 
was beheld in the light of young love. Here, perhaps, the 
cheerful morning smiled upon their sweet councils, as the 
day's pic-nic, or the evening's conversazione, was laughingly 
planned. From this window they gazed into the deepening 
twilight, and silently imbibed the spell of that hour in glad- 
ness of spirit. Yonder hall, perhaps, witnessed the early 
triumphs of the young bride in the circles of society. There 
sped the dance and coursed the jest till early dawn. Years 
rolled away, and the saloon which had beheld the rich content 
of affection echoed to the restless tread of ambition. A new 
epoch of life had arrived. The love of companionship and 
pleasure had become merged in a thirst for power. He sought 
it in political schemes ; she, in the petty rivalries of her 
courtly acquaintance. Time passed on ; and at length, at 
the accustomed season, one only came hither, and in mourn- 
ing weeds, and soon returned no more. The paths of the 
once neatly-kept garden are grass-grown. The throng of 
liveried servants have dwindled to a few ill-clad menials. The 
chorus of the banquet-song has long since died away. The 
ornamental devices, upon which so much pains were lavished, 
serve only to amuse the curious traveller ; and their proud 
originator is forgotten. Such is human history !" 

There is a summer-house attached to one of the villas at 
Bagaria, fitted up in imitation of a convent. The figures, dis- 



TUB PAST AND PRESENT 143 

posed in different cells, are not ill-executed in wax. Age, 
however, has diminished their life-like hues. The order rep- 
resented is that of La Trappe, and the whole is intended to 
memorialize the story of Adelaide and Commegio, the cloister 
lovers. The fondness for amusement which, at an earlier 
period, dictated these fantasies, still lives in the hearts of the 
Palermitans, although the means for its gratification have so 
much dirninished ; and, on the evening of the day that our 
travellers had visited this scene of former grandeur, they 
found themselves in the midst of one of the festive diversions, 
still occavsionally indulged in by the restricted nobles. In 
observance of the last day of Carnival, one of the extensive 
rooms of the Royal Theatre was illuminated, and crowded 
with the gay attendants on a Festa di Ballo. Minor apart- 
ments were arranged for conversation and refreshments; 
and, after the opera, the theatre itself was thrown open to 
the dancers, while the boxes were appropriated to those who 
preferred being spectators : and here entertainments were 
richly served to select parties of friends. One can scarcely 
fancy a more gay sight than the wide area of an European 
theatre converted into a ball-room, while the tiers of dress- 
boxes present the lively appearance of so many little banquet- 
rooms. The most novel feature of the scene, however, to 
Isabel, was the fancy costumes. To the sound of martial 
music, the personators of various characters marched in pro- 
cession from an adjoining chamber into the saloon. Then, 
as they divided and mingled with the crowd, the rich colors 
of their foreign garbs were displayed in dazzling relief; and 
as Isabel, in her wanderings, suddenly encountered the ha- 
biliments of some personages dear to memory, she caught 
momentarily that romantic impression which these amuse- 
ments, when successfully managed, are well calculated to 
convey. But the illusion was too often di&pelled by the 



144 SICILY. 

ludicrous grouping of the characters, or some remark of 
Vittorio, whose eye pierced the velvet doublet and the em- 
broidered vest, and read much more of actual character than 
was visible to the strangers. 

rt That tall and graceful figure, in the splendid attire of 
Queen Elizabeth's courtiers, is intended for the Earl of Lei- 
cester. But look at his boyish face and eye, never lighted 
by any fire but that of earth-born passion, and picture, if you 
can, such an expression upon the lips and brow of the gallant 
earl. And who would suppose the mincing young lady 
hanging upon his arm could have the assurance to represent 
Amy Eobsart ?" 

" There, however," said Isabel, a is a face and form in 
keeping with the costume. Those masses of light hair so 
gracefully arranged, that pale and quiet, though lovely face, 
the sad gentleness of the expression, the subdued movement, 
all betoken Parasina." 

They joined the spectators, surrounding a large party of 
waltzers. The combinations were not a little amusing. Here 
the Sultan Seycl, with his wide turban and dazzling arms, 
was whirling round a Swiss peasant girl. There a fat Tartar, 
with enormous mustachios, tripped away with the Bride of 
Abydos. A young Greek girl was the partner of a Spanish 
cavalier, w T ith black hat and ebon plume ; and a Turk, flash- 
ing with jewels and brightly-dyed merino, gravely twirled 
round the circle a smiling maiden in deep mourning. 

To minds utterly unlearned in the experience of the 
deeper and more refined sentiments, there is a strangeness 
altogether inexplicable in the impressions of an idealist. They 
cannot comprehend any but the most superficial suggestions 
of the natural or human world. In their view, there is a de- 
gree of singularity, approaching to mental disease, in the idea 
of a young person finding congenial pleasure in observing 



THE PAST AND PRESENT. 145 

such a scene as was now displayed to Isabel in the mere light 
of fancy and reflection. Yet thus did it present itself to her 
eye. She thought of the various fortunes of the seemingly 
joyous multitude, of the hidden passions, the concealed cares, 
the petty emulation, and the secret hopes, lying beneath the 
sparkling tide of festivity, which mortals so love to gather 
over their individual conditions, and merge, as it were, in one 
brilliant illusion, though but for a single night, the corroding 
memories and present troubles which darken their lot. There 
is rich material for imagination to weave into golden tissues, 
and philosophy to color with the light and shade of her im- 
pressive pencil, in the variety, the loveliness, the mannerism 
of a festival. What is the throb of pleasure which fills the 
pulses of the most eager partaker in the hilarity, to the calm 
delight of the musing spectator of the pastime? Lightly 
glides the fairy form through the mazes of the dance ; bril- 
liantly sparkles the jewel in the waving hair ; but more 
swiftly speeds the thoughts of the visionary, and brighter 
gleams his fancy's glance, as, excited by the symbols of hu- 
man joy, it roams amid the labyrinths of destiny. O, there 
are rare gleanings for the speculative in a ball-room, barren 
as of all places it is deemed by the stoic and the misanthrope ! 
Poets have spoken of a peculiar inspiration which breathes 
from the Spring-awakened life of Nature, of an intoxicating 
pleasure caught from the hum of new-born insects and open- 
ing vegetation. So, to him who sympathizes fervently with 
his race, there is an excitement in the sight of a gala, a social 
expression of enjoyment beyond mere sympathy in the gaiety 
of which it is the type, beyond and independent of it. And 
if a stranger be thus surrounded by a festive multitude, his 
thoughts, thrown back upon himself, do but engender a more 
sad, but perhaps a deeper reverie. He recalls the spontaneous 
delight of childhood. He pictures the contrast between 

7 



146 SICILY. 

present appearances and actual realities. He reads in the 
glowing faces around, in the interchange of looks, in the lan- 
guage of manner, many a tale of love, hope, and disappoint- 
ment. And in this there is poetry, not always fanciful and 
bright, yet still poetry ; and Isabel felt it. 

K Comer from the new world !" said the count to Frazier 
(playfully yet with earnestness), " where the enervating civi- 
lization of Europe has not yet triumphed, stand with me in 
the embrasure of this window, and I will read you a ball- 
room homily. Fifty years since, the female portion of the 
nobility of which these are scions, were almost entirely un- 
educated in aught save what are called accomplishments. 
Many could neither read nor write. Now in some respects 
there is an improvement ; in others a decline. Scarcely one 
of these lovely hypocrites pretends to respect her marriage 

vows. That queenly form in white is the Duchess of A ; 

the young man vivaciously performing a lover's part beside 

her is the Marquis , who a twelvemonth since married 

that pale dark-eyed lady who is coquetting with the Duke of 

A . The two are not estranged, for they never had a 

feeling in common, except the desire to combine their in- 
comes by marriage, that they might more freely follow their 
respective pleasures. Saw you ever such a magnificent set 

of diamonds as those in the hair of the Countess of ? 

They are taken out of pawn for the occasion, at an enormous 
expense. There is not a more gorgeous costume in the room 
than that Prince — — is now displaying. Its purchase will 
cost him a year's support, and swell the long list of his debts. 
I see your eye wanders to that thoughtful-looking youth, 
standing near the grave officer. They are father and son. 
The father derives his support solely from his commission. 
The latter, at the university of Pisa, where he was educated, 
contracted a strong friendship with some young Brazilians, 



THE PAST AND PRESENT. 147 

overflowing with the love of liberty. Their views were en- 
thusiastically adopted by their Sicilian friend. He returned 
an ardent republican, and his poor father is in continual dread, 
lest, by some unguarded expression, he should incur the dis- 
pleasure of government, and lose the old gentleman his office 
and his family their only resource. His son himself fears it, 
and petitions to go to England, where he may enjoy his lib- 
eral principles in peace. But glance over the whole room. 
Of all these young men, some of whom wear so spirited a 
bearing, scarcely one knows any higher ambition than the 
temporary distinctions which an occasion like this can gratify. 
Among the whole circle of these women, you can with diffi- 
culty find one deserving of the office, or capable of the duties 
of a mother. And what better can you expect in a country 
where the legitimate objects of reverence — parents and priests 
— set an undisguised example of libertinism 1 Is not the 
unavoidable consequence among the higher ranks, practical 
atheism? Comer from the new world ! look through the 
finery around you ; pierce the artificial gloss ; read the evi- 
dences of exhausted resources, unprincipled lives, and frivo- 
lous pursuits, which make up the true history of society here, 
and thank heaven your lot was cast in a young republic." 

There was a bitterness in the count's tones, which mel- 
lowed into sadness as he concluded, that touched the heart 
of Frazier. If there is any spectacle at once noble and af- 
fecting, it is that of a young man whose moral sensibility is 
wounded by his country's decline, who stands aloof from the 
general corruption of manners, and mourns over it as he 
would at a brother's dereliction ; and whose love of truth and 
allegiance to virtue is more earnest than his national vanity. 
Frazier felt a new and sincere respect for Vittorio. He re- 
plied only by pressing his hand, and then stood lost in a rev- 
erie which the conversation had awakened. When he roused 



148 SICILY. 

himself and turned to seek his friend, he was no longer be- 
side him. A few moments passed in threading the dense 
crowd, brought him again in view. He was sitting on an 
ottoman in the adjoining apartment, every expression of pain- 
ful thought banished from his fine countenance, eagerly listen- 
ing to the words of Isabel. What a consoler is woman ! No 
charm but her presence can so win man from his sorrow, 
make placid the knit brow, and wreathe the stern lip into a 
smile. The soldier becomes a lightsome boy at her feet ; the 
anxious statesman smiles himself back to free-hearted youth 
beside her; and the still and shaded countenance of care 
brightens beneath her influence, as the closed flower blooms 
in the sunshine. 



Thy fanes, thy temples, to thy surface bow, 
Commingling slowly with heroic earth, 
Broke by the share of every rustic plough ; 
So perish monuments of mortal birth, 
So perish all in turn, save well-recorded worth. 

Childe Harold. 

THE rainy season, after several fallacious intermissions, at 
last terminated. Its long days of chilly winds and heavy 
showers, gloomy skies and damp atmosphere, more oppressive 
to the absentee than the clear and exhilarating, though in- 
tensely cold air of more northern winters, gave way, all at 
once, to the genial breezes and burning sun of a Sicilian 
spring. Anxiously had Isabel awaited these indications of 
settled and auspicious weather, and no sooner did they appear 
than she urged upon her companions the expediency of im- 
mediately starting on an excursion into the interior, which 
they had previously planned. Not without difficulty had she 
persuaded her uncle to allow her to be the companion of his 
visit to the celebrated antiquities in the adjoining provinces. 
He knew that most of the journey was only to be rerformed 
on horseback, and that much discomfort must be endured in 
order to reach the desirable objects in view. But Isabel 



150 SICILY. 

urged the short period requisite for the expedition, her great 
desire to behold these trophies of antiquity, and that uncon- 
querable spirit of enterprise and endurance which she had in- 
herited from her father. These arguments were not without 
their influence upon Frazier's mind, but another considera- 
tion tended still more to win from him a reluctant consent. 
He saw that Isabel needed the excitement of change. He 
remarked, during the many weeks of rain which had followed 
the first bright month of their sojourn in Palermo, that her 
thoughts, thrown inward by the outer gloom, which often 
made her an unwilling prisoner at home, dwelt more ear- 
nestly, and with less of hope, upon the idea that had drawn 
her abroad. Her cheek had paled ; her eye was less cheer- 
ful ; and the tones of her gentle voice, never trained to aught 
but the ingenuous responses of the spirit, broke forth in a 
less buoyant and heart-stirring music than was their wont. 
He knew that a few days of free communion with Nature, a 
short interval of novel observation, and even the brief court- 
ing of fatigue and inconvenience, would do much to divert 
and relieve her melancholy. Provided, therefore, with means 
and appliances almost equal to those with which caravans 
enter the precincts of some desert region, they prepared for 
a short visit to the interior of Sicily. To Isabel the change 
of scene was delightful. 0, thou enlivener of our faculties 
stupefied by the monotonous circuit of still life — thou reviver 
of slumbering feelings — thou awakener of thought — thou 
restless spirit of travel ! how much dost thou lead us volun- 
tarily to suffer, how many pleasant blessings to sacrifice, how 
many penances to inflict freely upon ourselves ! Urged by 
thee, we dare the perils of the sea, and go from the serene 
safety of home to the hazardous highway of the world. . We 
abjure the families, the well-tried, and the well-known, the 
attached friends, the accustomed scenes, and the cherishing 



BEG EST A AND SELINUNTIUM. 151 

kindred, and we go forth to begin life, as it were, anew, to 
make ourselves homes abroad, to commune with foreign lands 
and customs, to take upon ourselves the cheerless name, and 
the lonely lot of the stranger. Yet art thou a consolation 
and a noble teacher, restless spirit as thou art. Guided and 
impelled by thee, how much do we learn ! How do our 
minds expand with liberality that can see good in all things 
and with love that can find brotherhood in every human be- 
ing : how do we draw principles from the mingled teachings 
of nature and society, as their united voices variously and 
eloquently cry to us on our pilgrim path ! We study the 
great volume of the world and of creation, not according to 
some narrow and local interpretation, but as cosmopolites, as 
humanitarians, as men. We weave ties of fellowship and 
love, beautiful because so wholly our own work — the result 
of the contact of our own natures with what is congenial in 
spirit, though in habit and circumstance utterly foreign. We 
thus realize the compass of our minds, the power of our affec- 
tions, and the illimitable capacity of our sympathies. Alas ! 
that the sweet bonds with which the solitary sojourner binds 
himself to the warm-hearted and the fair of other lands, to 
the beings who, in each abiding-place, cheer him with kind- 
ness, and solace him with affection, should be so transient ; 
that just as a home-feeling steals over him, he must renew 
his pilgrimage ; that at the moment his heart has made unto 
itself glad fellowship, he must become again a wayfarer ! 
This, to the true-hearted and the grateful, is the greatest 
sacrifice which travel demands of its votaries, the most severe 
tribute which he lays upon her altar; for all of comfort and 
safety that he has foregone fades quickly from memory, but 
the obligations of the mind and heart are never forgotten. 

Thus felt Isabel as she looked back from Monreale upon 
the valley, sea, and city, amid which she had so long tarried. 



152 SICILY. 

And the painful sense which ever accompanies the idea of 
parting, faded not from her mind, until after a long ride 
among the hills, whose aspect was rather wild and rocky, they 
emerged from between two rugged cliffs, and came suddenly 
in view of the green valley of Partinico, spreading from the 
sea in the same fertility of aspect and level expanse which 
distinguish the plain around the capital. The remainder of 
the carriage-road winds through a country resembling, in 
every essential feature, that which they had passed in pre- 
vious journey ings. Still the olive-trees rose thickly in the 
fields, their ancient and gnarled stumps bearing in sturdy 
pride the thick and dim mass of foliage, nourished most mys- 
teriously, it would sometimes seem, through the narrowest 
possible remnant of the decayed trunk. Still the hills 
stretched in dreary ranges, and exhibited masses of oxydated 
rock ; and still the way was skirted with the bluish and 
spear-like leaves of the aloe, upon whose thorny edges hung 
many a crystal dew-drop. 

It was but dawn when they left the village which formed 
the boundary of the carriage-road, and guided their horses 
into the path which leads to the site of the ancient iEgesta. 
The way lay along the edge of a deep glen. The ranges of 
mountains opposite are rock-ribbed, and dotted with culti- 
vated lots, and the path itself is thickly bordered with over- 
hanging bushes, clusters of wormwood, and innumerable wild 
flowers. From the more elevated parts of this rugged and 
narrow path, when the wide slopes on the right, the green 
defile beneath, and the clear horizon beyond, were all visible, 
the scene was remarkably picturesque. As they wound 
slowly along, gradually coming in sight of its different fea- 
tures, the morning light stole softly, and in gentle gradations, 
over the landscape, now falling goldenly upon some high 
mound, now giving a silvery glow to the polished leaves of a 



SEGESTA AND SELINUNT1UM. 153 

distant and lofty tree, and radiating more and more broadly 
a clear light along the eastern sky. Isabel's gaze was di- 
rected to the hills on her left, as the sun thus silently dis- 
persed from their tops the mist of night, when, at a break in 
their line, unexpectedly as a vision, appeared the beautiful 
temple, standing in solitary prominence upon a broad, high 
hill-top. The early gleam of the sun fell upon its simple col- 
umns, between which glimmered from afar the lucid horizon. 
The lonely position of this chaste edifice gives a singular and 
striking effect to its first appearance, rising thus to the eye 
unawares. No trees interrupt the view. No adjacent ob- 
jects distract the attention. Though by no means lofty or 
commanding in its proportions, it is placed so high, that, when 
seen from below, and thus distantly, there is a majesty in its 
aspect which is deeply impressive. The time-worn hue, the 
graceful pillars, the airy architecture, the elevated position, 
induce an immediate and most pleasing impression. The be- 
holder at once feels that there is before him a Grecian tem- 
ple — one of those few specimens which embalm and illustrate 
a principle of art, and memorialize an exploded but poetical 
religion. The perfect repose of an hour, the extensive and 
varied scenery, the lonely position of this fair vestige, and its 
tranquil beauty, were scarcely realized by the travellers, ere, 
like a scenic image, it was lost to view as suddenly as it had 
appeared. The next bend of the mountains veiled it from 
their gaze, and left them at liberty to speculate upon its ap- 
pearance. This momentary glimpse, however, sufficed to 
strike and arouse Isabel's imagination more effectually, per- 
haps, than a nearer and longer inspection. She pondered 
long upon the devotion to Nature which the site selected for 
its erection indicated, upon the love of the simple so insig- 
nificantly displayed in its architecture, upon the delightful 
union of the beauty of art with the glory of the universe, 

7# 



154 SidlLY. 

which the Greeks understood so well how to combine into 
one noble influence, to arouse human feeling and address the 
sense of the ideal. No one, she thought, possessing one 
spark of the soul's ethereal fire could encounter such a tem- 
ple, encircled by the green hills, and canopied by the vaulted 
sky — at the solemn hour of morning, without thinking of a 
superior intelligence, and yielding to the inspiration of that 
devotional sentiment which prompts the human heart to seek 
that which is above and eternal ; in wretched ignorance too 
often it may be, with a most dim and inadequate sense of its 
object perhaps ; but still there would be the feeling, the idea 
of devotion — the struggling of the spirit to mount — the tend- 
ing of the soul heavenward — the uplooking, the inclination to 
the spiritual, which is man's highest attribute. In such a 
feeling there is blessedness. How much might art and soci- 
ety and experience encourage and call it forth, were men 
more inclined to lessen the machinery and cherish the poetry 
of life ! After winding round the base of the hills, they 
came out upon the almost barren scene which once teemed 
with the dwellings of an ancient city. On the summit of a 
mountain — itself the centre of an amphitheatre of hills, are 
the remains of the amphitheatre of Segeste ; and as one sits 
upon the highest range of stone seats, the eye glances over a 
mountainous and wild region, embracing a prospect of re- 
markable extent. Below, upon a lesser elevation, and in the 
centre of a dale, appears the temple — the only other distinct 
relic of the ruined city. Its thirty-six columns are much in- 
dented and shattered, and have been partially restored. As 
the strangers stood upon the weedy ground, beneath the roof- 
less architrave, the wind sighed through the open pillars as it 
swept from the hills. A flock of goats were ruminating upon 
the slope which declined from the front of the building, and 



SEGESTA AND SELINUNTIUM. 155 

scores of birds, distributed by the intrusion, fluttered and 
wailed above their heads. 

" This Doric structure," said Vittorio, " is supposed to 
have been dedicated to Ceres, and is no unworthy token of 
the city it has survived, whose foundations were laid soon 
after the Trojan war, and the destruction of which is attrib- 
uted to Agathocles. This tyrant's anger was provoked by 
the .ZEgestans having asked aid from the Carthaginians to re- 
sist his usurpations. How beautiful appears such an archi- 
tectural relic, standing alone in the midst of these wild sweep- 
ing hills — a lone memorial of departed ages — invoking the 
traveller to remember that here once flourished the arts of 
life, and swelled the tide of humanity in grandeur and pros- 
perity, where all is now solitude and dreariness ! No sound 
but the tinkling bells of that browsing herd, and the wild 
hymn of the free wind, meets our ears. No human figures 
enliven the scene, save that group of herdsmen leaning on 
their reeds. All is lone and silent. Yet as we look upon 
these columns, which violence has mutilated, and time 
stamped with decay, and trace the lines of human workman- 
ship ; as we at one view contemplate the regular position of 
the pillars, the cornice, the pediment, the broad steps, the 
simple majesty of the design, and mark the evidences of hu- 
man thought — how clearly does this isolated object bring 
home to the spectator the thought of those who once gath- 
ered about this portal in familiar conclave, and to whose 
eyes this temple was as well known as the landscape of our 
native place to us ! For ages the morning has gilded these 
columns as at this moment ; for ages they have been be- 
dewed with the tears of the solemn night. Centuries of 
revolution, and of nature's annual decline and renovation, 
have passed on, and still it stands, venerable and alone — a 
mute chronicle, unshadowed by one of the mafcy edifices 



156 SICILY. 

that rose around it — the recordless monument of the city it 
adorned." 

After leaving this interesting spot, the way became more 
void of the signs of life and cultivation. Now and then they 
passed a lettiga^ with its complement of passengers and at- 
tendants. This is the national carriage of Sicily. It con- 
sists of a kind of box, like the body of a carriage, rudely 
painted with the effigies of saints and martyrs, and secured 
to two poles, which are supported in front and behind upon 
the backs of two mules. The constant tinkling of the bells, 
and the uneasy motion of these animals, combined with the 
narrow dimensions of the vehicle, render it a comfortless con- 
veyance. The extensive hill-sides and plains in this region 
afford pasturage to numerous flocks of sheep and herds of 
cattle, and occasionally patches of more productive soil were 
covered with the blue blossom of the flax, or green with the 
newly-sprung grain. There was a forbidding aspect, how- 
ever, in most of the scenery, especially when a cloud veiled 
from its wide surface the cheerful sunlight. Our travellers 
were not the less sensible of this lack of pleasing features in 
the landscape, that they were fresh from the companionship 
and living language of the metropolis. Who has not felt, 
after a long abode in town, when he has found himself alone 
in a thinly-populated country, a certain strangeness of posi- 
tion, arising from the unwonted absence of the sights and 
sounds of multitudinous life ? 

" It seems sometimes well," said Isabel, " to quit thus the 
circle of busy life, to leave behind us the symbols of social 
refinement, and to come forth into the loneliness of nature. 
We return to these enjoyments with a new delight." 

" I doubt," replied Vittorio, " if any but travellers can 
thoroughly appreciate the blessings of civilization, the ameni- 
ties of cultivated society, and what Lamb calls ' the sweet se- 



SEGESTA AND SELINUNTIUM. 157 

curity of streets.' It is by contrast that we realize their 
charms. And I know no change more delightful than that 
from days of wandering in a scantily habited country, to our 
accustomed round of friendly visits, and social pleasures, 
where are congregated the dwellings of our kind, environed 
with the graces, the courtesies, and the refinements of social 
existence." 

Frazier, who had dismounted, and rambled to a little dis- 
tance, returned with his hand full of herbs. 

" Look," he exclaimed, " while you have been idly specu- 
lating, I have botanized to some advantage ; for in this little 
walk I have discovered several wild plants, which, in their 
cultivated state, garnish our tables. It proves how fertile 
in useful productions, are even the barrenest parts of the 
island. Here, for instance, is a bunch of wild asparagus, al- 
most as good in appearance as is sold in the markets of 
America." 

" You would find it rather bitter though," said the count, 
laughing ; " but we are approaching a finer illustration of the 
richness of the Sicilian soil." 

As he spoke they came in view of another of these rich 
plains, which occur, at intervals, along the coast, and afford 
the greatest contrast to the desolate chains of mountain scen- 
ery which extend back for miles from their borders. 

There is an ancient quarry at the distance of a few miles 
from the now impoverished town of Castel-Vetrano, at which 
travellers repose on the route we are describing, if haply they 
are provided with the appurtenances to secure comfortable 
slumber, and bid defiance to the attacks of the insects which 
infest the country-houses of the island. The ride thither is 
dreary, and the first object worthy of note which meets the 
eye is Pantelleria, looming up from the sea at a considerable 
distance, its two mounds, if the day be fine, clearly defined 



158 SICILY. 

against the horizon. This island is the wretched abode of 
most of the state prisoners of the kingdom of Naples. The 
old quarry is situated in the midst of a cultivated field. 
There is a large mass of granite, bearing the most obvious 
marks of having been anciently cut for architectural purposes. 
Two or three circular blocks, of about nine feet in diameter, 
remain standing, and were evidently intended as parts of 
enormous columns. It is curious to remark, that the man- 
ner of working this quarry was evidently to cut the blocks 
for use directly from the mass, instead of first excavating 
fragments, and then shaping them, as is the modern custom. 
Vittorio bade Isabel notice this, as a proof of the economy 
of ancient labor. The difficulty there must have been in 
transporting these huge segments was another subject of won- 
derment. 

" If it were not for these rank weeds, and this thick coat 
of moss," said Frazier, u one would think the work was aban- 
doned but yesterday. How plainly you can trace the lines 
of the chisel ! Yet this scene of action was thus suddenly 
deserted many ages ago, and has apparently been undisturbed 
since, save by the traveller's footstep." 

On quitting the place to visit the site of Selinuntium, 
which city was evidently indebted for its most lasting mate- 
rial to this very quarry, they found the path far different 
from that which they had threaded since morning. It was a 
lane, thickly bordered with myrtles and flowery shrubs, which 
perfumed the air beneath a sunlight so vivid, that they were 
glad to guide their horses beneath the trees which overhung 
the way. There was a mingled wildness and garden-like 
beauty in this sequestered road which charmed Isabel, and 
she was delighted to find, in many of the floral emblems, that 
seemed to smile upon her from their waving stalks, or meekly 
court a glance from below, many of the flowers which at 



SEGESTA AND SELINUNTIUM. 159 

home were deemed worthy of assiduous culture. Through 
the openings in the hedge, here and there, were visible the 
thatched and hive-like tents of carbonari and the cheese-mak- 
ers. Near the former a wreath of blue smoke curled grace- 
fully upward ; and about the latter the cattle lay in groups, 
with their stag-like heads motionless, giving a rural and pic- 
turesque air to the otherwise deserted scene. From this 
shady and soothing way they came out upon a sandy beach, 
upon which broke, in gentle murmurings, the blue waters of 
the sea, and, ascending a high cliff, were at the foot of the 
lesser pile of ruins which indicate where stood the ancient 
Selinus. Between this spot and the opposite elevation was 
the port of the city, now choked up with sand ; and the plain 
above the farther promontory is covered, for a considerable 
space around, with the massive remains of the temples of 
Selinuntium. These fragments, with the exception of two or 
three columns which still rise in stern pride, seem to have 
been thrown down by some violent convulsion of the earth. 
They are all in a style of severe simplicity, and the vestiges 
of the largest edifice indicate its size to have been grand be- 
yond conception. There is something unique, even to one 
very familiar with the trophies of antiquity, in the appearance 
of this mass of ruins. Broken columns, capitals, wall-stones, 
and architraves, huddled promiscuously together, and bear- 
ing few traces of time's corrosive torch, but rather wearing a 
hue of freshness and undiminished strength. Their position, 
however, and the herbage and wild flowers which grow luxu- 
riantly amid and around them, sufficiently vindicate their 
claim to the title of ruins. The sea-breeze stirred the flow- 
ing hair of Isabel as she sat upon one of these huge frag- 
ments between her uncle and Vittorio, while their purveyor 
arranged their collation upon the wide slab of a fallen pillar. 
She looked seaward, round over the verdant plains, and then 



160 SICILY. 

upon these noble and prostrate remains, and the glad har- 
mony of nature seemed to blend with the solemn music of 
antiquity, and move in one deep, rich, and softened cadence 
over her heart. 

" If toil and enduring material could secure the perpetu- 
ity of human temples," said the count, " one would think that 
these would have remained unharmed, and stood now in solid 
grandeur as at the hour of their completion. Yet one earth- 
quake, perhaps of momentary duration, long since, laid their 
proud columns in the dust. How triumphant are the ener- 
gies of nature ! How transient the mightiest efforts of art ! 
See what a vine has spread its tendrils over this capital, and 
note that brightly-painted lizard glide fearlessly over this 
splendid segment of a majestic column." 

" Yet, after all," said Frazier, " why moralize over a few 
blocks of granite, which were quarried, carved, and reared 
into a gigantic structure, and, having served their destined 
purpose, were hurled down to crumble on the earth ? Rather 
look upon these fertile fields, and that line of fishing-boats, 
and rejoice that the resources of the earth are ever renewed, 
so that, with due labor and care, men, age after age, are pro- 
vided with the necessities of life and the bounties of Provi- 
dence." 

" It is, I believe," said Isabel, " because the count has 
faith in other wants than such as these that he speaks mourn- 
fully of these ruins. He sees an evidence of devotion to some- 
thing beyond and above physical life. They are mementos 
of sentiment, taste, and mind. They bespeak a love of the 
grand and the beautiful, and therefore it is saddening to think 
of their downfall and behold their decay. Yet methinks it 
were more consoling to remember the eternity of the princi- 
ple that gave them birth ; to think that art's divinest product 
is but faintly typical of human capacity — to think that the 



SEGESTA AND SELINUNTIUM. 161 

more completely vain seem the embodiments of genius and 
feeling now, the more conscious is the spirit of a nobler 
sphere and an immortal destiny." 

Isabel's eye and cheek glowed, and her voice was firm in 
its sweetness as she spoke. Her travelling hat was thrown 
back, that the refreshing air-f might visit her brow more free- 
ly ; and as she thus uttered her young but warm conviction, 
even her uncle's smile changed to a gaze of admiring affec- 
tion, and the earnest eyes of Vittorio were thoughtfully fixed 
upon her face. She seemed to him like the lovely genius of 
the scene — the inspired prophetess, heaven-appointed, to in- 
terpret its teachings. 



Itinttu. 

Rebellious subjects, enemies to peace, 

Profaners of this neighbor-stained steel, 

Will they not hear ? — what ho ! you men, you beasts — 

That quench the fire of your pernicious rage, 

With purple fountains issuing from your veins, 

On pain of torture, from those bloody hands 

Throw your mistempered weapons to the ground. 

Romeo and Juliet. 

THE path, beyond the remarkable vestiges of Selinuntium, 
intersects a cork wood of some extent. The trees which 
compose it are not, however, of that immense size which ren- 
ders these forests so grand and gloomy in more northern 
districts of Europe. They are triennially barked, and, at 
different times, have proved highly profitable to the proprie- 
tors. A broad heath, interspersed with masses of tangled 
brushwood, opens from the extremity of this grove, and its 
barrenness is relieved by the yellow blossoms of a species of 
broom which abounds here, of a bell-like form, and pleasant 
perfume. A rough and precipitous descent conducts the 
traveller down to the sea-shore, upon which stands the town 
of Sciacca. There are few among the many picturesque lo- 
calities of Sicily which strike the beholder as better adapted 
for the scenes of romance than this. The country, for many 



SCIACCA. 163 

miles round, is wild and hilly, and a long ridge of lonely 
beach offers the most accessible road during a considerable 
space. Several abrupt mountains are grouped commandingly 
at a short distance from the sea, from one of which a constant 
stream of sulphur vapor exhudes, and at their base are several 
warm springs mentioned m ancient history. Beneath these 
hills, upon a promontory jutting into the ocean, appears 
Sciacca. The peculiar hue of age which distinguishes its 
compact buildings and wave-washed ramparts, is in admirable 
keeping with the wild adjacent scenery and bleak position of 
the ancient town. The ascent to its walls is very steep and 
broken; and as our travellers were slowly winding up the 
rude mule-path, Isabel declared there must be some fearful 
legend or historic interest attached to the spot, and turned 
to the count for a confirmation of her surmises. He could 
not but credit her sagacity ; and when the party were re- 
freshed, as far as the miserable accommodations of the place 
permitted, they beguiled the evening with a glimpse of the 
history of that now decayed and impoverished country. 

" The ruins of the two castles back of the town, and an 
old palace within its walls, are the only existent memorials 
of the most distinguished among its ancient families. No- 
bility and wealth combined to give the ascendency in Sciacca 
to the houses of Luna and Perollo. Between these rival 
barons, and their descendants, there existed a feud as in- 
veterate and deadly, though boasting no such affecting catas- 
trophe, as that which has immortalized the names of Capulet 
and Montague. Its origin, like that of many similar quarrels, 
is attributed to disappointed love. Arrale Luna and John 
Perollo were suitors for the hand of Margaret Peralta, an 
accomplished and beautiful heiress. At that moment the 
balance of worldly advantages preponderated in favor of 
Luna, who was a great favorite at court; and he was ac- 



164 SICILY. 

cepted, although it is believed the lady greatly preferred his 
rival. If she did thus sacrifice her affections to ambition, 
the usual fatal consequences of such perversity soon followed ; 
for in a very short time after his marriage, Count Arrale, 
having taken a bath at the foot of younder mountain, under 
the church of St. Barnabas, suddenly died, in June, 1412. It 
was currently reported that the bath was poisoned by the un- 
successful lover. However ill-established the story was, a 
mere suspicion of this nature, in that sanguinary age, was 
sufficient to excite in the minds of Luna's immediate descend- 
ants a desire and purpose of revenge. This was increased by 
a litigation between the houses respecting the barony of St. 
Bartolomy, then in possession of Perollo. The case was de- 
cided in favor of Luna, and thus a new occasion for mutual 
animosity presented itself. Deprived of his estate by his 
enemy, and mindful of his ancestor's wrong, Perollo deter- 
mined to inflict summary vengeance upon his rival, whose 
very presence, environed as it was with all the insignia of 
successful ambition and superior wealth, was a source of con- 
stant annoyance to the haughty baron. The manner in which 
he undertook to obtain satisfaction for his baffled hopes, and 
satisfy his long-cherished hatred, is a remarkable evidence of 
the daring and ferocious spirit of those times. Towards 
evening, on the sixth of April, 1455, as Luna was walking in 
procession with the priests of the Holy Thorn, near the palace 
of Perollo, his enemy, taking advantage of his defenceless 
position, rushed forth, and stabbed him till he fell. Then, 
leaving him weltering in his gore, he hastened with a party 
of adherents to the palace of his fallen foe, and, setting it on 
fire, abandoned it to destruction. Luna's wound was not, 
however, mortal, and he gradually recovered from its effects. 
This flagrant crime was the means of extending the knowl- 
edge of the inveterate feud which had so long disturbed the 



SCIACCA. 165 

peace, not only of the rival families, but of their whole native 
city, and in order, if possible, to arrest its progress, King 
Alphonso banished both of the fierce barons. In the course 
of the year 1462, John of Arragon recalled them, and, whether 
cooled by absence, or rendered reasonable by advancing years, 
on returning to Sciacca they mutually avoided all occasions 
of discord, and passed their remaining days in friendship. 

" Nearly seventy years had elapsed, and Charles occupied 
the throne of Spain and Sicily. It was one of the most agi- 
tated and eventful epochs in the history of the island. The 
two leading houses of Sciacca had continued to advance in 
riches and power, and at this time they occupied relatively 
the same antagonist positions. They still were rivals in wealth 
and ambition, superior in rank and influence to all around 
them, and sufficiently balanced in the number of their re- 
spective friends, the pride of birth, and the means of acquir- 
ing power, to keep alive a constant and active spirit of rival- 
ry. In accordance, too, with the notions of the age, it was 
deemed chivalrous to remember that their ancestors were 
enemies, and keep the slumbering embers of past feuds from 
being utterly extinguished. The demon of quarrel, however, 
for a considerable time, only manifested itself among the de- 
pendents and friends of the two nobles, occasionally breaking 
out in petty disputes or bloody encounters. Thus, even with- 
out the immediate agency of the principal personages, the 
order, security, and quiet of Sciacca were perpetually invaded 
by this long-nurtured feud. The narrow confines of a single 
city were insufficient to sustain the conflicting pride of two 
such haughty chiefs ; and the spirit of faction, that enemy of 
social tranquillity, raged with unrestrained ferocity and seem- 
ingly deathless energy amid the inhabitants of Sciacca. An 
incident soon occurred which roused the leaders to renewed 
hostilities. Sericano Bassa, a famous Moorish corsair, who 



166 SICILY. 

had carried off many of the inhabitants from the coast of 
Sicily, and consigned them to slavery, succeeded, in the sum- 
mer of 1529, in surprising the Baron of Soknto, while that 
noble and his friends were hunting. Proud of such a prize, 
the bold pirate appeared off the shore of Sciacca, and dis- 
played signals for a ransom. Luna presented himself, and 
made large offers to retrieve the captives, but his exertions 
were quite unsuccessful. Perollo, equally anxious to effect 
the same object, not only tendered rich presents, but endeav- 
ored to gain the good-will of the corsair by his attentions and 
talents. In a short time those efforts were so effectual, that 
the dreaded pirate not only gave up his noble prisoner, but 
solemnly pledged himself to Perollo never henceforth to 
cruise near the shore of Sciacca. Thus the baron not only 
conferred a lasting obligation upon one whose friendship was 
eminently desirable, but rendered an important service, and 
one which could not but be deeply felt, upon his native city. 
This triumph of his rival's excited the most rancorous envy 
in the breast of Luna ; and so open was he in his threats of 
injury, having retired to Castabellata, and consulted with his 
friends as to the best means of exterminating his enemy, that 
Perollo and his partisans began to consider how they could 
best anticipate his machinations. Luna and his counsellors 
deliberately determined upon the death of his rival, and ac- 
cordingly sallied forth at night, at the head of a hundred 
soldiers, who, to avoid suspicion, were dispersed through the 
city. Their intended victim, having received timely warning, 
was shut up in his palace under the plea of illness. The 
bravi of Luna succeeded in taking two well-known friends of 
Perollo, whom they instantly despatched, and bore their 
heads, affixed to poles, through the streets of the town. An 
excellent and illustrious citizen, heart-sick at this horrible 
proceeding, attempted to establish a reconciliation, and ap- 



SCIACCA. 167 

peared before both barons, bearing an olive branch, and 
counselling peace ; but the good old man was seized by some 
members of one of the factions, who affected to consider him 
a spy, and basely murdered. When Perollo heard of this 
new crime, he appealed to the viceroy for assistance. Baron 
Statella, from Catania, was commissioned, in conjunction 
with the fiscal counsellors, and three officers of Sciacca, with 
full power. He ordered Luna to disband his troops and re- 
turn to Castabellata, executed the leading ruffians, and took 
every measure to quell the tumult. But the riotous citizens 
rose upon him, and Luna, after dissembling a short time, re- 
turned with an increased force, and declared himself resolved 
to prosecute his purposes. In this emergency, Perollo sent 
his eldest son to solicit succor at Messina, with a strong at- 
tendant guard. Luna took immediate advantage of the dimi- 
nution of the forces sent to guard his rival, and, having bar- 
ricaded the streets, surrounded the palace where Statella 
resided, who was killed, and his body thrown from the bat- 
tlements. Perollo's castle was also besieged, and, after a 
prolonged and desperate assault, was on the point of being 
taken, when the friends of its unhappy proprietor once more 
endeavored to win Luna to peace. The haughty baron re- 
fused all overtures, unless his enemy should kneel to him, 
ask forgiveness, and kiss his feet. The bearer of this humili- 
ating proposal having been severely beaten, Luna was so 
exasperated, that on the following morning he renewed his 
attacks vehemently, and, having made a breach, penetrated 
to the interior of the castle, and spread ruin and death around 
him. Perollo fled by the southern postern ; the victor re- 
spected the persons of the fugitive's family, but turned a 
deaf ear to their tearful prayers for peace. Perollo took 
refuge in a house near the sea, but was betrayed to Luna by 
one of his own faction. He was slain by the daggers of his 



168 SICILY. 

rival's partisans, and his body dragged through the streets, 
attached to the tail of Luna's horse. Frederick Perollo re- 
turned at the head of a powerful force, and revenged his 
father's death by the massacre of Luna and his adherents. 
This last sanguinary scene closed the long and tragic feud 
of the rival houses — a feud unparalleled for its inveteracy, 
and affording a sad illustration of the spirit of those times — 
a feud which for many generations divided and harassed the 
people, and signally marred the prosperity of Sciacca." 






tgriptm 

What Is gray with age becomes religion. Wallenstexh. 

THE dreariness of the ride from Sciacca to Girgenti is in- 
terrupted only by the occasional appearance of one of 
the many torrents which rush from the mountains to the sea, 
and the sight of some old tower crowning a bluff upon the 
shore. These relics of ancient fortresses are pleasant objects 
in the lonely prospects, since they carry back the mind to one 
of the most romantic, though least known, of the eras of 
Sicilian history. Another striking object which draws the 
attention of the wanderer through this solitary region is tho 
singular aspect of a little village on a hill-top, which, on ac- 
count of its bleak position, about fifty years since, was de- 
serted by its inhabitants, who erected their cottages in the 
sheltered vale below, leaving their former dwellings to de- 
cay. The compact, low walls of this group of gray cottages 
are conspicuous in their desertion, and when first seen, pre- 
sent, in conjunction with the country around them, a melan- 
choly though not displeasing picture. It is somewhat start- 
ling to the unprepared equestrian, after crossing the line of 
beach which completes his dreary ride, to find himself upon 
the Mole of Girgenti, which, although of inconsiderable ex- 

8 



170 SICILY. 

tent, often presents a scene of bustle and activity. Lines of 
galley-slaves may be seen repairing the mound, the clank of 
their fetters blending with the roar of the waves, vessels of 
no ordinary burden lying off the shore to receive their car- 
goes, boats plying, and, higher up, crowds of porters trans- 
porting the sulphur-cake, the great article of export here, or 
arranging it in long piles to be weighed. As he leaves this 
little mart, a more cheerful country at once presents itself, 
and a level and well-travelled road echoes cheerily to the 
steps of his steed. Small droves of donkeys, with their pan- 
niers filled with the firmly moulded product of the mine, wind 
along the highway, and far above appears the Girgenti, on 
the summit of a mountain. Although this, like most of the 
Sicilian towns when viewed from afar, presents a strong, an- 
cient, and really picturesque appearance, when more inti- 
mately known it is found to consist of narrow and filthy 
streets, where beggary vaunts its wretchedness, and comfort is 
almost unknown ; where a splendid church, a few palaces, or 
some beautifully located convents, are in saddening contrast 
with the general and too often disgusting tokens of neglect 
and misery. It was perfectly refreshing to the spirits of the 
strangers to find themselves, on a balmy and bright morning, 
free from the air of the modern town, which rose command- 
ingly above them, and traversing the fertile and noble plain 
upon which stand the antiquities they sought. The day, in- 
deed, was an . uncommon one, even for that region. The 
warm, enervating breath of a mild sirocco wind was tempered 
by the sea-breeze. The light, fleecy clouds of a summer sky 
had floated down to the very edge of the horizon, and the 
broad, clear canopy of heaven was one boundless expanse of 
azure ; while the sun, as yet devoid of the intense heat of the 
approaching season, shone in all the glory, without the fervid 
heat, of a southern spring. It was one of those splendid days 



AGRIGENTUM. 171 

which bring, to such as are blessed with health, an unaccount- 
able exhilaration — which fill up the measure of content, and 
charm the senses while they animate the soul. The field 
through which our little party were proceeding was vividly 
green with early grain, as if the goddess once worshipped in 
this plain still delighted to clothe it with the emblems of her 
favor. Over this thickly- woven garniture fell, far and wide, 
the shadows of innumerable almond and olive-trees, which 
studded, for a great distance, the plentiful domain, the dark 
and light tints of their foliage intermingling in rich variety. 
Here stood the second ancient city of Sicily. The remains 
of a temple, consecrated to Ceres and Proserpine, have shared 
the fate of many architectural relics of past ages, in being 
transformed into constituent parts of a church. One column 
of what is called Vulcan's Temple is embedded in a peasant's 
cottage, and the only other remaining one rises at the corner 
of his garden wall. Two columnar fragments, and the stair- 
case of the temple of Esculapius, are in a like situation. But 
with these exceptions, the ruins of Agrigentum exist invio- 
late to an extraordinary degree, and are less invaded by mod- 
ern and irrelevant circumstances than is often the case with 
the antiquities of Europe. The first in tolerable preserva- 
tion is the temple of Juno Lucina. Its position is beautiful 
and commanding ; and the foundation of the internal wall, 
thirteen perfect and many broken colums of the Doric order, 
are still standing. The altar-base is also discoverable, and 
one can follow the corridors in their whole extent. From the 
little esplanade in front, a view of vastness and beauty ex- 
pands to the vision. This space was evidently left for effect ; 
and a few ancient benches of stone, at a sufiicient distance to 
command a view of the whole edifice, suggest how much 
judgment was exercised in the location and arrangement of 
the edifice. This spot must have been a favorite retreat for 



172 SICILY. 

the contemplative. The sea spreads itself inimitably on the 
one side, and all the space around is one luxuriant valley, 
bounded by a fine ridge of mountains, upon one of which the 
modern town of Girgenti now stands, while directly before 
the spectator rose, with a simple majesty accordant with the 
spirit of the scene, the noble fabric whose vestiges still 
awaken admiration. 

" One disposed to be fanciful," said Vittorio, as they 
stood enjoying the prospect, " might almost imagine that he 
heard the flutter of a philosopher's robe in this early and in- 
vigorating breeze, so well adapted seems the spot to the dig- 
nity of thought. And may we not reasonably suppose, that 
this level space, before so beautiful an edifice, has often been 
paced by the slow feet of sages, as they sought, according to 
the delightful custom of antiquity, mutually to impart wis- 
dom, with nature's restoring breath playing around, and art's 
noblest trophies rising beside them ? It was within the walls 
of this temple that the precious painting of Zeuxis, in which 
were concentrated the charms of the five most lovely women 
of Agrigentum, was preserved." 

" It is a fine idea, is it not," said Isabel, " that of weaving 
into one perfect whole the beauties which nature has scat- 
tered ? There is poetry in the thought. So may we gather 
the volatile light of pleasure by keeping our spirits clear and 
open, that, like a lens, they may gather the scattered rays, 
and make them radiate one warm beam of joy upon the 
heart." 

" And there is philosophy in the thought, also," said Vit- 
torio. " Thus, too, comes to us wisdom and truth. Men err 
most essentially by seeking them from partial sources ; one 
from a single science, another from nature alone, and a third 
from an abstract theory. Like the Grecian painter, we 
should be more universal j and combine into a luminous 



AGRIGENTTJM. 173 

whole the light that beams from the wide domain of creation, 
and the broad universe of humanity. "We should roam, like 
the blessed founder of a pure religion, seeking emblems of 
the good and the true in the lily and the grass — in the hum- 
ble action of the despised, and the ostentatious effort of the 
wealthy — in the aspect of childhood and the events of time. 
Gleaning thus from society and the universe the garland we 
should weave on the by-way of time, like the painting of 
Zeuxis, would blend the various glories which men too often 
seek singly, and therefore find inadequate." 

Passing on by scattered masses of the ancient walls, in 
which are discoverable the niches for the deposit of funeral 
urns, the next temple is that of Concord, the most perfect of 
the antiquities, being complete, with the exception of the 
roof. It is situated a little lower than that of Juno, but is 
still sufficiently elevated to command from its top the same 
extent and variety of scenery. At the distance of a few rods, 
a line of low wall-stones, and a group of columnar and other 
fragments, evidence the former magnificence of the temple of 
Hercules ; and farther on, two or three enormous capitals, 
and the foundation layers of the outer wall of the temple of 
Jupiter Olympicus, prove it to have been one of the largest 
of the ancient edifices of Sicily. As the visitor wanders amid 
the huge mass of ruins, he discovers in the midst a group of 
stone-work, in which a little attention will enable him to de- 
cipher the lineaments and frame of a stupendous giant. Sev- 
eral other remnants of this kind are noticeable among the 
massive blocks, and it is conjectured that these monsters 
were carved to form a secondary row of pillars in this grand 
structure. In a pleasant dale below this heap of remains 
stand three chaste columns and a cornice, all that exist en- 
tire of the temple of Castor and Pollux. A square massive 
tower, of unquestionable antiquity, in the vicinity, is known 



174 SICILY. 

as the tomb of Theron, although by some it is supposed to be 
the monument of a horse, many of which are known to have 
been erected by the Agrigentines. 

After many delightful hours spent in viewing these va- 
rious objects, Vittorio suggested that they should repair to 
the convent of St. Nicolo, which stands upon the brow of a 
mountain above the valley. This monastery has, for many 
years, been deserted by the Franciscan fraternity, to whose 
patrimony it belongs ; but it is still visited occasionally by 
travellers, on account of the fine view obtainable from its 
roof. When they reached this point of observation, the pan- 
orama, canopied by a brilliant sky, appeared to them unpar- 
alleled. The surface of the distant sea was unbroken by a 
single sail, but the line of foam evidenced that its wide bosom 
was stirred far out by the free wind. The dark tint of the 
innumerable ancient olives relieved the light green of the 
almond-trees, which shared with them the extensive plain. 
On a gradually declining strip of upland, between the con- 
vent and the sea, at a sufficient distance apart to give due 
effect to each, appeared the remains of the city — Juno's line 
of pillars, the graceful temple of Concord, prominent in its 
completeness, the dim masses of Jupiter and Hercules, and, 
in meek beauty, lightly springing from below, the three col- 
umns of Castor and Pollux. The stone of which these tem- 
ples are composed is not of a firm texture, and the marine 
atoms discernible in its composition prove it to be of alluvial 
formation. It is of a brownish, or clay color, which contrasts 
finely with the verdure around, and, with the added advan- 
tage of the lucid atmosphere peculiar to these regions, gives 
to the several structures an exquisite relief in the landscape. 
The notes of birds, or the clear chime of the bells from the 
town above, were the only sounds which disturbed the reflec- 



AGR1GENTUM. 175 

tions of the strangers as they gazed from the lofty convent 
upon the scene of their ramble. 

"Enterprise," observed Frazier, "well directed, in the 
excavation of this valley, would doubtless bring to light 
many valuable relics of antiquity. No one can inspect the 
meagre collection which has rewarded the comparatively 
trifling labor bestowed here in seeking for vases, without 
being convinced that there are innumerable unearthed treas- 
ures lying beneath these grain fields." 

"It were certainly desirable, 3 ' said Vittorio, "not only 
here, but at Pompeii and Rome, where the sight of such slow 
and childish attempts at discovery, in a sphere in which one 
feels there is so much to seek, is certainly provoking. But 
how admirably are these antiquities * situated to convey an 
impression ! No piles of wooden building environ them. 
The noise and filth of a populous town obliges not the travel- 
ler to seek them by moonlight, as is the case in the Eternal 
City. They are alone with nature. As we look upon them 
thus, there is no difficulty in realizing their authenticity. 
Through this plain whirled the ivory chariots of the Agrigen- 
tines, drawn by horses of unrivalled swiftness and beauty. 
Here the tyrant Phalaris practised his cruelties. From that 
line of tombs hurried the fear-stricken soldiers of Hannibal, 
when the sudden thunder-storm frightened them from their 
sacrilegious purpose. A little more than four centuries be- 
fore the Christian era a population of eight hundred thousand 
souls inhabited this rich valley, now rendered picturesque by 
a few remnants of the majestic temples of their gods. Over 
all else obscurity has drawn a veil. And long may these 
beautiful relics lift their time-worn shapes from this verdant 
plain, to solemnize the fresh exuberance of nature with the 
emblems of departed time, and awaken the thoughtful yet 



176 SICILY. 

pleasing emotions with which we contemplate the mystery of 
the past !" 

The return route from Girgenti to the capital by the 
most direct way, affords a good opportunity to judge of the 
interior features of the island. Perhaps there are few coun- 
tries, of similar extent, where a greater contrast is observable 
than that between the coast and interior of Sicily. Along 
the sea, and about Etna, the aspect is fertile and delightful, 
and the stranger who should circumnavigate the island dur- 
ing fine weather, would receive an impression of the richness 
and beauty of the country which might realize his most ro- 
mantic dreams of the luxurious south. # Yet farther back, 
bare hills and wild torrents constitute the predominant 
scenery, sometimes brightened and diversified by patches of 
wild flowers. The course which our pilgrims pursued to ex- 
pedite their return led them through long tracks of bleak 
pasturage, and they crossed more than thirty times the same 
circuitous fiumare, then shrunk to comparatively narrow di- 
mensions; but when at all swollen by the winter's rains, 
presenting a complete barrier to the traveller's progress. 
Yet, amidst these unproductive parts of the island, there are 
still presented striking evidences of its natural resources. 
The low mounds and light smoke of the sulphur mines, of 
which there are several of apparently inexhaustible material 
in Sicily, are seen at intervals, giving signs of life to some 
lonely ridge of hills. Still it is a relief to emerge, after a 
long day's travel, from this almost deserted domain, and 
strike upon the fine road which runs through the island. The 
occasional appearance of the country guards, who generally 
move abroad in pairs, well mounted, give an assurance of the 
neighborhood of more civilized provinces. These campiei'i^ 
as they are called, are selected from the inhabitants of each 
village, and their commander is responsible for all robberies 



A.GRIGENTUM. 177 

on the highway during the day, an arrangement which has 
proved very effectual in preserving the rights of travellers. 
In the neighborhood of Palermo, a broad valley, covered with 
rocks and olive-trees, indicates the scene of a noted brigand 
fight, in which seven of these desperadoes succeeded in keep- 
ing at bay a large number of troops and nearly a hundred 
peasants for several hours, and at length five effected their 
escape. Another scene of interest in the vicinity is a village, 
founded by a Greek colony, where one of the dialects of that 
language is still spoken, and on feast days the costume of the 
nation worn. It is one of the customs peculiar to this 
spot, and a similar and more distant settlement, that the 
priests are allowed to marry. In the light of a fine afternoon 
the vale of Palermo was once again revealed to the longing 
eyes of Isabel, and she could not but compare the mere 
curiosity with which she first greeted the distant city, with 
the homefelt emotions which now filled her heart, as at the 
presence of a cherished friend. 



€\)t fxtmln. 

O welcome guest, though unexpected here ! Cowper. 

TO acquire true impressions, the traveller should revisit 
scenes of natural interest and beauty, and behold them 
in different moods of mind and at different seasons of the 
year. If this is true generally, it is particularly so in regard 
to many parts of Southern Europe, and especially of the 
island of Sicily. A gloomy sky or chilly wind often dispels 
all charm from her fairest prospect ; and although the peren- 
nial verdure of the fertile regions gives them at all times a 
cheerful aspect, yet it is wonderful how the feelings of the 
stranger, who stands beneath the cloudless sky, and in the 
clear sunlight of spring or autumn, contrasts with those 
which he experiences when the scene is veiled by the winter 
rain, or parched by the heat of mid-summer. Our pilgrims 
were conscious of this, when, for the second time, they ap- 
proached that part of the island which, in the view of the 
scientific, presents the greatest amount of interest. One of 
those beautiful English yachts which may occasionally be 
seen cruising on the Mediterranean coast, had borne them, in 
a few hours, from Palermo to Catania. Before reaching their 
destination, they surveyed from the sea those remarkable 



THE REUNION, 179 

masses of basaltic rock which rise near the shore, and were 
obviously the offspring of Etna. To ascend this mountain 
was the object of their visit, and, on landing, Isabel noted 
with delight the rapidity with which vegetation unfolded, and 
the universal hue of spring which had robed the whole adja- 
cent country. At such a period, the singular prevalence of 
the lava is more striking. Indeed, nothing but familiarity 
with this wonderful material prevents its appearance in such 
abundance from excitiDg surprise. The entire domain, for 
many leagues around the volcano, bears witness to the fre- 
quency and extent of its eruptioas. The lava here lies 
heaped in rocky masses ; there, reduced to powder, it consti- 
tutes the road; decomposed by time, it forms the soil in 
which every variety of tree and vegetable flourish ; shaped by 
the chisel, it appears in the form of doorways and pillars, 
while its rough and unhewn fragments serve for the walls of 
plantations. 

The road to Nicolosi, which constitutes the first stage of 
the ascent, is bordered with vineyards, intersected with 
streams of lava, of later origin than those which compose the 
soil. With the exception of these dark ridges, and the fine 
black dust which flies around the traveller, there is little to 
impress him with the idea that he is passing over a country 
once devastated by a volcanic inundation. Yet, directly be- 
fore his eye rise two seemingly low mounds, with separate 
peaks, but joined at their bases, of a dull red color, half 
covered with shrubbery. This is Monte Rossi, whence issued 
the fatal streams of 1669. After several hours* repose, our 
travellers found themselves beyond the village, and moving 
slowly towards the desired summit. It was night. The sky 
was clear and the air calm. No sound but the heavy tread 
of the mules, through the sand-like path, disturbed the deep 
stillness of the hour. The light of a lantern, carried by a 



180 SICILY. 

boy in advance of the guide, glimmered upon the huge blocks 
of lava, which were widely scattered around, like the waves 
of the mighty sea, petrified in some moment of convulsion, 
and dyed with the ebon blackness of a storm-cloud. Occa- 
sionally a meteor flashed athwart the star-gemmed sky, or 
a breeze from above swept fitfully by. There was something 
indescribably solemn in thus seeking the summit of one of 
earth's most venerable mountains in the solitude and shadow 
of night, and for some time they continued to progress silent 
ly, till the count observed to Frazier, " We have seen many 
antiquities, but none of them can vie in age with this moun- 
tain. It was sought by the wise men of old, not less than by 
the inquirers of our own age. It is celebrated by the earliest 
poets. Pindar sang its wonders, and the mythology of a 
later epoch accounted for its mysterious movements by the 
theory of the Cyclops, who, it was fabled, were forging the 
armor of Vulcan beneath yonder cone." 

"And to us it remains almost as much of a mystery,' * 
said Frazier, u in many essential respects. As to its history, 
it seems to me we can best read it in the various strata of 
lava around us, some the production of remote ages, some not 
yet cooled by the upper air. Who can survey its enormous 
base, and note the springs generated in its bosom, the many 
colored minerals encrusted on its surface, the sulphureous 
masses embedded in its sides, the fantastic ridges clinging 
around it, the masses it has hurled into the sea, the snow 
upon its heights, the blaze from its crater, and the infinite 
variety of trees and plants serenely growing over its wide 
breast, without acknowledging it to be one of the greatest 
wonders of this wonderful creation?" 

Having crossed the woody region, an extensive tract thin- 
ly covered with large ilexes, with few branches, and almost 
destitute of foliage, they passed a space of more difficult paa- 



THE REUNION. 181 

sage, from the broken fragments of lava and tortuous chan- 
nels between them, and came to a broad snow plain, whose 
hard and slippery surface afforded an uncertain foothold, and 
where the cold, keen wind, and extreme rarification of the 
air, warned them that the trials attendant upon the expedi- 
tion had not been wholly exaggerated. This sloping area 
reaches to the base of the cone. As they moved towards it, 
the smoke burst in heavy volumes from its centre, the dense 
column ever and anon reddening with a deep crimson flash, 
which rose with a kind of supernatural glare, throwing a 
dazzling light over the snow, and looming through the clear 
atmosphere with a momentary but startling brilliancy. The 
young moon appeared, like a large golden crescent, hanging 
on the horizon, when they left the last refuge, called the 
Casa Inglese, and commenced climbing toward the crater 
over heaps of crumbling lava. As they were seated away 
from the immediate influence of the suffocating exhalation 
upon the edge of the boiling abyss, dawn began to glimmer 
along the sky, and far beneath them, at the horizon's edge, 
i the sun, appearing like an enormous globe of fire, seemed to 
start from the mountains of Calabria, scattering over the 
small fleecy clouds every variety of gorgeous tint, and bath- 
ing the sea and hill-tops in light. Then felt the lonely spec- 
tators on the summit of Etna, the sublimity of their position. 
Volcanic mounds rose to their gaze, like ant-hills, over the 
whole mountain. Sicily was spread beneath them — its moun- 
tains, cities, and islands, dwindled to the dimensions of 
minutely pictured objects. Syracuse was visible on the 
shore; Castro Giovanni among the hills. They descried 
Malta, and even the distant Adriatic, and the shadow of the 
cone of Etna falling like a mighty pyramid over the southern 
side of the island. Who can describe the emotions excited 
by such a landscape ? They are part of that poetry of life 



182 SICILY. 

which whispers in mystic but thrilling tones of a spirit in the 
human breast, above the destiny of earth, and immortal as 
the stars — a spirit which 

" Has power to make 
Our noisy years seem moments in the being 
Of the eternal silence." 

" I am fond of analogies," said Isabel, as they descended 
the last lava plain—" especially between man and nature. Is 
not the volcanic soil of this region like the temperament of 
the people ? These rocks are formed by a sudden convulsion 
at once, and momently ; so the feelings of the children of the 
South mould themselves into action immediately ; quick, 
fervent, and impetuous, they rush forth to results. In north- 
ern countries, the slow processes of years form the granite ribs 
of the hills, and the sons of those climes are contented with 
regular, reflective, and gradually matured feeling." 

" And remember," said the count, " the crystals found in 
the quickly smouldered furnace are often as clear and beau- 
tiful as the stalactite created by the slow-dropping water, 
through countless years." 

The warm season had now commenced ; and our travel- 
lers found the change from the still brooding heat and scorch- 
ing sirocco of the capital, to the breezy confines of Messina, 
delightfully refreshing. There is a certain melancholy, 
though not displeasing influence, in the advent of a Southern 
summer. The long days, when the heat forbids active exer- 
cise abroad, and enjoins quiet at home, following each other 
in bright yet monotonous succession, induce a physical 
languor which begets a dreamy mood. The very brilliancy 
of the weather, unbroken for weeks by a single change, 
chastens the buoyancy which the variety of other seasons 
awakens, and the many hours that are passed in the airy soli- 



THE REU1%0N. 183 

tude of lofty apartments, are rather calculated to subdue than 
excite. The siesta and the bath take the place of the opera 
and the promenade. Repose becomes a luxury ; and, thrown 
back upon itself, the mind is prone to quiet musing, and the 
imagination to soothing flights. Never had this season dawned 
so richly upon Isabel, and yet its music was the saddest strain 
which renewed nature had ever breathed upon her spirit. 
She found herself at the point whence her journeyings had 
commenced, and yet she was apparently no nearer their ob- 
ject. From the window of their apartment on the Marina, 
she watched for hours the varying tints which played upon 
the opposite mountains of Calabria ; or, tracing the dwarfed 
line of contiguous buildings, called to mind the earthquakes 
which had transformed that peaceful landscape into a scene 
of terror and destruction, the effects of which are still so pal- 
pable. But disappointment shadowed her most tranquil 
moments. In vain the count planned the most pleasant ex- 
cursions. They charmed but momentarily. They had often 
followed, in the calm light of eventide, the long, curving 
beach, formed, according to classic fable, by the cycle of 
Saturn, from the town to the Faro, and thence viewed the 
massive square rock on the opposite coast, and the gurgling 
currents near — the once dreaded dangers of the deep — the 
Scylla and Charybdis of antiquity ; or from some favorable 
point watched the twilight gather slowly over the beautiful 
hills which closely environ the town ; or noted the splendid 
chiaro of the atmosphere, which is nowhere more strikingly 
obvious than in this part of the island. These peaceful 
evenings, however, solaced Isabel, and she often returned 
from such excursions re-animated by the exercise ; and as 
they sat in the stone balcony, inhaling the invigorating breeze 
as it swept through the Faro, and watching the lights of the 
fishermen's boats as their red glare flashed over the calm 



184 QSICILY. 

tide of the harbor, the cheering words of her uncle, and the 
tender assiduities of her lover, failed not to renew her hopes 
and renovate her spirits. 

On one occasion they started on their afternoon expedi- 
tion in an unusually cheerful mood. Vittorio was in high 
glee, because he had received intelligence that a party of 
travellers had landed some weeks since at Syracuse, and hav- 
ing explored most of the island, arrived at Palermo, and were 
on the point of visiting Messina ; and among them he hoped 
was the father of Isabel. Frazier was elated from anticipat- 
ing the arrival of an American frigate, the commander of 
which was his intimate friend; while Isabel, having in- 
stinctively caught something of the blitheness of her com- 
panions, reciprocated all their words of encouragement, and 
smiled at every ebullition of their kindly wit. Their object 
on this occasion was to visit one of the highest hills, where 
stands the telegraph, commanding the finest prospect in the 
vicinity. After following for several hours a winding road, 
overlooking precipitous and umbrageous glens, and bounded 
by yet more lofty hills, thickly covered with fern, they 
reached the desired spot, and beheld a scene of transcendent 
beauty. On the one side were the Lipari islands, rising at 
intervals from the sea, the cone-like mound of Stromboli con- 
spicuous amid the group ; opposite was the long range of 
Calabrian hills, and below the Faro, town, and bay, consti- 
tuting a rich and finely-varied view, every feature of which 
was vividly distinct at that clear and tranquil hour. They 
had but rapidly taken cognizance of the several phases of 
the picture, when it acquired a new and unexpected interest. 
Around the point of the Faro appeared the American frigate, 
her majestic form slowly moving before the wind, and her 
well-known flag gaily flaunting in the breeze ; and a moment 



THE REUNION. 185 

after a steam-packet shot rapidly through, her smoke stream- 
ing far along the horizon. 

Isabel, after returning from this excursion, was scarcely 
seated in her favorite balcony ere Vittorio entered, with a 
look of delight which instantly awakened the expectancy of 
his companion. 

" I have," said he, K at length once more encountered my 
Malta friend, and with your permission will bring him here 
to pass the evening with us." 

Isabel checked the expression of disappointment which 
rose to her lips, and signified her assent. 

An hour elapsed before the count's return. Frazier was 
so occupied in examining, through his glass, the equipments 
of the frigate, which was anchored opposite the window, and 
Isabel was so lost in her own thoughts, that they did not 
notice his entrance, or that he was accompanied by his friend. 
They approached the balcony and paused. Isabel listlessly 
turned her head, and her eye instantly met that of the 
stranger. There was a quick, short cry of recognition, and 
the next moment she was in the arms of her father. 



A few days subsequent the dawn broke with more than 
ordinary beauty over the landscape which greeted the eyes 
of the pilgrims on their first arrival. The morning was serene 
and cool. The blue waters of the harbor were scarcely rip- 
pled. Far away, upon the undulating hills, sunlight and 
shade played fantastically ; and the hum of re-awakened life 
rose with a scarcely audible murmur. Suddenly volumes of 
smoke rolled from the dark sides of the frigate, a sheet of 
flame shot momently through the vapor, and then, deep, loud f 



186 SICILY. 

and solemn, echoed the thunder of the report. Cloud after 
cloud wound gracefully upward, and conjoined above her 
masts, and the attentive eye could occasionally trace a per- 
fect circle of smoke, till it floated into the depths of the sky. 
This parting salute was not immediately followed by those 
rapid manoeuvres requisite to put the vessel in motion. It 
was evident, from the arrangements visible, that some cere- 
mony was to be performed before her canvas was spread to 
the breeze. Shaded by a broad canopy, the officers were 
composedly grouped upon the polished quarter-deck, and 
near by were the now united pilgrims, while below them the 
men presented gallant lines, standing uncovered, and in such 
silent array, that the flutter of the national banner might be 
distinctly heard. Beneath that emblem of her far distant 
country the marriage vows of Isabel were uttered, and, at 
the conclusion of the rite, the noble vessel stretched proudly 
away for the neighboring shores of Italy. It is only when 
we leave the scene of a pilgrimage that we perfectly realize 
its interesting and characteristic features. As Isabel watched 
the diminishing headlands of the island, the experience of 
her sojourn was renewed in the retrospective glance of 
memory. She recalled the peculiar and lovely scenery which 
had so often cheered her sight. She reverted to the number- 
less beings who were content to drudge on in the monoto- 
nous circuit of a few dim thoughts, and the dark requisition 
of a narrow creed, and the countless victims of ignorance 
and poverty that grope abjectly amid such ennobling scenes 
of picturesqueness and beauty. She thought of the noble 
relics of the past that still sanctify the soil, and the acts of 
kindness and words of sympathy which had solaced her exile. 
The mingled remembrances grew more vivid as the real pic- 
ture became dim ; and, with her farewell glance, she breathed 
an aspiration, spontaneously inspired in every susceptible 



THE REUNION. 187 

mind, in taking leave of Sicily, that the time may come when 
the rich resources and beautiful garniture with which nature 
has blessed the ancient island may be hallowed by a worthier 
heritage of human freedom, intelligence, and virtue. 



THE END. 



H 107 89 








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